Wow

I'm done with my first week-long break.

And it was probably the greatest single week I have ever had in my life. We went to Rome, Florence, Venice, and Salzburg, Austria, and I had a total blast. I'll do my best in the following paragraphs to do the week justice, and many pictures will be sure to arrive shortly.

Friday the 18th we arrived in Rome (as evidenced by my last post), and checked into our hostel, the Yellow Hostel. Nice place, free breakfast and internet, good location near the train station. We had a 6 bed room with a private bathroom, so that was nice too. Saturday, we met up with Phil's friend Cindy who is studying in Rome, and we went to Vatican City. It was amazing. The Sistine Chapel is gorgeous, and climbing to the top of St Peter's offers a great view of the city. After touring the Vatican, we got more gelatto (its the theme of the trip, I swear) and went to a great restaurant for pasta dinner (the second theme of the trip). But not before we stopped at the Spanish Steps and the Trivi Fountain. I was sure to throw a two pence piece in. Those things are useless anyway.

Sunday Cindy took us to the Collosseum, the Pantheon, and the Roman Forum. Pretty sweet. That night, we ate in Cindy's apartment...nothing like a home cooked meal for the taste buds and the bank account. After we said our goodbyes, we stopped for Nutella filled donuts, which were only 35 euro-cents. And they were awesome.

I noticed a few things interesting about Rome though: lots of grafitti, and lots of gypsies. Also, their public transportation is terrible compared to London's. The Metro (subway) only has two lines! And the busses were very confusing, so we just stayed off of them for the most part. Overall, Rome gets an 9/10.

Next stop on our whirlwind tour was Florence. We stayed at the Hotel Sampiaoli, which was quite nice. Two seperate rooms, both with full bathrooms made showers in the morning much less hectic. We rolled into Florence by train (it was about an hour and a half ride) midday Monday. After checking in, we went to the Duomo, which is essentially a smaller (but older) version of St Peter's in Rome. The view was again, magnificent.

The next day, we lined up early for the Accedamia Museum which houses Michaelangelo's David. Wow. Words cannot describe the beauty and awe of this piece. It was one of, if not the, highlights of my trip. After that great exhibit, we headed over the Uffizi museum (p.s. for those playing, I just lost the game), where we stood in line for three hours to see an over rated collection. It was neat to see Botacelli's 'Birth of Venus,' but otherwise...and there were no explanations...it just wasn't worth it. Not to mention it was SNOWING in Florence. Argh..

Florence had quite a bit of grafitti too, which was quick becoming noticed throughout Italy. It was a pretty city, but the Duomo, while offering a great view, was not all that pretty to look at, and the lack of night life (we went to a pub one night...because we couldn't find anything else) hurts as well. Oh, and it SNOWED. Only the amazing gelatto (best in Italy, I thought) and the Accedamia saves this town. Maybe its more enjoyable in better weather. It scores a 6/10.

Wednesday we left by train again to Venice. When we got there, we walked out of the train station to an amazing view of the grand canal. After dropping a euro in the hat of a street performer playing the piano (gotta support my own...and think how many bridges that guy had to push it over!), we took a water bus down the canal to our hostel. Our hostel there was AWESOME. It was bascially an apartment, completely with a living room, kitchen, iron, and cable TV (Italian MTV is pretty crazy stuff). I had fallen pretty ill by this point as had one other person, so that night, instead of going out, we followed Rick Steves' advice (Rick Steves as in the author of several European travel guide books) and got take away from a local pizza place. It was cheap, fast, and deliciious. Up there with that one slice of pizza I got in New York that one time.

Thursday we wandered around Venice, near the Rialto Bridge (the main one over the grand canal) and shopped around for glasswares (Murano, a side island of Venice, is famous for its glass), and ate more gelatto. That night, we were going to out to a couple great bars we had heard about, but by that point, the plague that I was suffering had shut down my body and several of my travel mates' as well, so we stayed in and made dinner, and went to bed early.

Venice was absolutely gorgeous. The people were great, the canals fascinating, and there were no cars! Great hostel + great food + awesome environment + SUN = 10/10. Best city I saw.

Friday we left for Salzburg by way of Villach, Austria. It was a six hour trian ride, so once we got into our hostel, we just went to the hostel bar. It was pretty fun. The Austrian beer was a welcome vacation from the terrible Italian "beer" that still lingered on my taste buds, and the bar tender was a really cool guy. We also got to meet up with a couple other ND kids rounding out their trip as well.

Saturday we explored the city. We saw Mozart's birthplace and where he lived, and the Salzburg Fortress. The fortress was really neat. It was basically impenetrable during the time when penetrating castles was a cool thing to do. We also got a free (well, included in admission anyway) audio guide, and another really cool view from the top of the fortress (its on a really tall hill). After the tour, we wandered around some more, saw the main church in Salzburg (which was ornate like the Italian ones, but somewhat simpler and blander in color), and then went to a restaurant for some hearty Austrian food. And it was. I had roast pork with potatoes and sauerkraut. It was the best meal of the week, hand's down. After dinner, it was back to the hostel bar, where more and more ND kids were ending their trips, so we all chilled until bed time.

So Salzburg had one great site, great food, and pretty good beer. But after that, there wasn't all that much to do. Sound of Music was filmed there, and there's a whole tour that's offered that takes you to all the sites...for thirty euro. So we didn't do that. Also, it was COLD in Austria (duh...). So Salzburg scores a 8/10 on the scale-o-meter.

However, the overall rating of my trip isn't simply the average of the individual scores (which is an 8.25). Just having the opportunity to do this while still in college (with a little help from the 'rents from time to time...) adds at least 5 points. Add to that I feel holier for having visted the Vatican, and the fact that gelatto is the greatest thing on earth, and the trip scores a 22.675/10. Pretty impressive in my book.

Odds are I forgot some stuff. Check Phil's Blog once he updates to fill in pieces/verify my tales. If I realize a glaring error, I'll fix it. Once I feel like it.

But now, its great to be back where the national language is English, even if people do hate still hate me for my nationality. I've got laundry to catch up on though, so cheers!