Tiffany, Vivi,
Sophia and I left the house in the morning at 3:30 am. The THOUGHT was if we left
in the middle of the night the girls would just sleep most of the morning and
we would also miss a lot of traffic… we should have known better. As soon as
Vivi hit the car she began talking, and talking, and then some more talking. To
make things more interesting the traffic we were SUPPOSE to miss, only lasted
about 2 hrs before we hit stalls and detours. What a great start…
Finally at 10am
we stopped to get some gas and have some breakfast. We had stopped several
other places before this point, but nothing was available to eat until 10. Note
for future reference, “convince restaurants” such as McDonalds are NOT convenient
in Europe.
After we had some food,
only to hit the road again and discover that I had left my purse in the gas
station! It contained my whole identity, passport, credit cards, SS card,
instillation pass, international drivers licenses, drivers licenses, and about
200 Euro plus some USD!! I was freaking out to say the least. After 1.5 hours I
was afraid it was gone. After a quick turn around, I ran back in to the place I
had left it, and to my disbelief it was still there with all the contents.
We made it down to Italy around
dinner time. A 9 hour trip that had been 13 long hours.
Italy: Day 2, Beach Day/ 4th of July
Day two was a
180 turn around. We woke up, got some breakfast and hit the beach that was just
across the street. It was a white rock beach with beautiful blue water. I loved
the look, but the rocks rather hurt.
After a morning of walking around we had
lunch, let the girls nap, and then headed over to the American beach that was
located 2 km from our hotel to spend the 4th of July evening. One of
my favorite parts of the trip was floating in the ocean with Vivi and watching
the sun go down over the nearby islands and Italian village in the distance, it
was BEAUTIFUL.
After the sun set, instead of a fireworks
show they had a water and laser light show. I’m sure the locals loved all the
American’s playing God Bless the USA over loud speakers on the beach.
Italy: Day 3, Leaning Tower of Pisa, July 5th
Wow! Where to
start? We slept in this morning since the night before was so long. We got up
around 10 and was out the door by 10:30. We caught the city bus outside our
hotel and made our way into downtown Pisa.
Once there we
headed straight to the Leaning tower of Pisa. Less eventful than I imagined,
but incredible none the less, it’s something I have always wanted to see.
Following we
made our way down the streets outside the walls and visited several local
vendors. It is very easy to get caught up and sped too much! They have some
really good prices on several things including pashminas, which I LOVE!
We had lunch at
a local Italian place, which was delicious! I had some sort of pasta with some
kind egg and bacon, never had pasta quite like it.
After a nap and
some much needed rest we ended the day with the pool and a delicious dinner at
one of Tiffany’s co-workers house that lived nearby. That was a treat as well
since she had lived in Italy since 1984!
Italy: Day 4, Florence, July 6th
Florence… wow I
could spend a week there on museums alone! We began the day with the Duomo and
Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise! I was so excited about this, it’s something wrote
about in art history about 6 years ago.
After some more
shopping, another great Italian lunch, and some sights along the way it was
time to go to the Uffizi Gallery where “the Birth of Venus” is kept, my
favorite painting of all time!!! I only had 50 minutes to get through the
gallery due to a shortage on time. This is ridiculously short if you know art
galleries. I got out with just enough time to make it to Academia gallery to
see the statue of David. After a couple wrong turns, however, I missed the last
slot by 2 minutes L
A 1 hour train ride
and 20 min taxi later we were back in Pisa where our hotel was.
Italy: Day 5, Travel Home, July 7th
Nothing to eventful
on this day, we stopped in La Spezia Italy for some lunch. It was a nice walk
along the harbor and some great Focaccia bread, a long drive back, beautiful
scenery through Switzerland, and a tired bunch upon arrival.
No comments:
Post a Comment