Tyler posting with his wrap up of our Italy trip! I'm sure Court wants to post her thoughts on it also, so I figured we would do separate postings!!
We did Italy in 6 days, 5 nights... Fast and furious!! We started by flying to Venice, where we stayed 2 nights. We stayed in a really nice hostel.. Private room and bathroom, etc.. Like a hotel! Venice was awesome! It doesnt feel like Italy, more like an Italy themed amusement park, mixed with a handful of Disneyland. Our Gondolier (Yeah, we did a gondola ride) told us that 70,000 people like there, and it gets 20 million visitors a year! In Venice, we hit:
St. Mark's Square
Doge Palace (Where C and I got lost in the 16th century prison because there are no signs on that part of the tour)
And a Gondola ride!
Venice is all about walking, and we did a lot of it!!! Here are a few pics from Venice:
Next stop was Florence. We only stayed one night in Florence in a really nice hotel! Florence was hot, and PACKED with tourists. We got there on Monday, and sadly, all the museums are closed that day.. SO we went to Santa Croce church, which holds the remains of some of Italys most important people, like Galeleo and Michaelangelo!
On Tuesday, we tried to get into the Uffuzi Museum, which is supposed to be very Louvre-esque! However, there were lines HUNDREDS of people deep all day, so we skipped that and went to boboli gardens, which was beautiful! It was a HUGE garden full of statues and fountains! After that, we walked to the Gallery Academia and saw the Statue of David! That was spectacular!! It's much larger in person than it seems in photos! The museaum also had several unfinished Michelangelo sculptures, which were fun to see!
In Florence we hit:
Santa Croce Church
Boboli Gardens, and the Fashion museum that is attached
Gallery Academia
I dont know what it was called, but there is a huge outdoor sculpture exhibit that was awesome!
Our last stop was Rome.. We got into rome Late Tuesday night.. We were SO excited, because we found a really great deal on a "4 star" hotel! It was going to feel great sleeping in a fantastic bed, with a glamorous room, etc...Well... I dont know who doles out stars in Italy, but this place was a dump.. The place was a dump, and the staff was really seedy. It was actually such a dump that for the first time in my entire life, we were both so disgusted that we grabbed our bags and left. We walked to a corner Cafe and started calling hotels recommended in the EYEWITNESS EUROPE guide! We ended up at the Hotel Lancelot, and stayed for 2 nights... THAT hotel was BEAUTIFUL!! If we go back to Rome, we will stay there again!!
But aside from that, once we got to Lancelot, we got a late dinner and went right to bed! Wed was a furious pace all day! We started at the Colosseum, where we got roped into an "English tour," which turned out to be awesome and really informative! That lasted about an hour. As a bonus, with that tour, we got a free guided tour of the Roman Forum (We saw the exact spot where they creamated Julius Caesar.. People still bring flowers!) After that, we walked to the Pantheon and went inside, and then Trevi Fountain.
That night, we went to an "authentic" Rome restaurant, on the rec. of our tour guide. We had fried appetizers, ravioli, and Ox Tail (all their specialties).
The next day we got up and saw Circus maximus, where the chariot races were held (its just a field), and the Vatican Museum, which has over 5000 roman and greek statues, and is attached to the sistine Chapel! The sistine chapel was indescribable.. It's huge and breathtaking! I wanted to take photos but they have people all over who yell at you and shove their hands in front of your cameras. "NO PHOTO!"
That night we came back to Paris..
In Rome we saw:
The Colosseum
Roman Forum
Pantheon
Trevi Fountain
Circus Maximus
Vatican Museum
Sistine Chapel
Trevi Fountain - We threw coins in!
Our view from Hotel Lancelot
This is C and I in front of the Pantheon
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