Italia 2008!!

So my first venture outside of France was AMAZING! Me and some other students went on a trip to Rome, Italy for a week. We took a bus trip up, (24 hours!) and that wasn't fun at all... but worth it in the end. Our first day in Rome was pretty mellow, we found this excellent bar called "Sloppy Sam's" .. Apparently we stumbled upon the best English speaking bars in Rome! They had awesome drinks, fabulous nachos and even BETTER music..... me and some fellow Canadians had a great time chilling and rocking out to some old tunes.





Our second day in Rome was spent mostly at the Colosseum....the amount of history and architecture that this one site consists of is insane! Pictures cant even begin to explain or to capture the feeling you get when you see something so amazing. After spending the day walking around the Colosseum and the ruins it really made me wish i had paid more attention in history classes in high school! lol. The weather was kind of chilly but comfortable... Italy is well known for their "fake" designer bags and sunglasses, they are easy to come by - but you must barter with them to get a decent price. After a long day of walking and discovering things a cool and refreshing gelato is EXACTLY what i needed. If you didn't know, gelato's are this AMAZING type of ice cream dessert, and are everywhere in Italy. If you ever get the chance to try one you have to get it! The second night we ventured of to find the Trevi Fountain...this is ABSOLUTELY beautiful and i recommend that if you ever get to go there, go at night! The lights and the scenery are simply magical!





The third day i had come down with a nasty cold, but i suffered through it and went on with the site seeing! The Vatican was our plan for the third day in Rome, we had to get up and be there by 7 am because the line ups to get in can stretch out to be 5 KM LONG! My whole morning was jammed packed with seeing the most beautiful church in the world. We also went into the Vatican museum, where we saw the sisteen chapel... VERY cool. The amount of intense paintings and cool things you see are overwhelming and alot to take in at once. After a long morning of waiting, and walking we settled down for some delicious Italian pizza and pasta .... with a little bit of souvenir shopping!





The night life in Rome was surprisingly AWESOME! Italian men are however alot more aggressive than the french men. TIP: If you are a female going out in Europe make sure there are alot of girls or at least some boys with you.... they can get VERY aggressive.





We finished off our third night with a wonderful AMERICAN dinner at the hard rock cafe in Rome. All of the Canadian and American exchange students came, as well as some french students from Poitiers and 2 Australian's we met at our hostel. Kyle and I had an arrangement with the restaurant and got a great deal for a large and tasty meal ... well worth it! They also let kyle and i select a menu and made us all place cards with a personal greeting of our choice, it was a great night all together! :)





The fourth day me and 2 other UNBSJ students decided to leave Rome for the day and venture off to Florence, Italy. This city is very beautiful and it was so nice to get away from the hustle and business of Rome. We started our day off as any other day in Europe, walking around. We found an absolutely beautiful church and then proceeded to find HUGE markets filled with authentic leather purses and suitcases.... and tons of exotic scarfs and pashmina's! I personally loved this aspect of the city... it reminded me of something you would see in the movies. We then proceeded to find the oldest bridge in Italy to be still standing after WWII "Ponte Vecchio". This bridge was beautiful and so colorful... inside the bridge were fancy jewellery shops..WAY over-priced though! We also found some amazing shops, the shopping in Florence was alot better than Rome and lower prices as well! After a few hours we found a place that did characatures...and of course we couldn't resist but to get one done! Another thing i forgot to mention was that in both Rome and Florence, these statue/people actors were EVERYWHERE. They appear to be statues, and stay completely still until you give them money or they just randomly move. At first i jumped and screamed every time they did this... but after seeing it a couple times it was just plain CREEPY! We also came across the David statue in Florence, it was in a museum and on the outside of the museum the fake replicas were all around it! To finish up a great day, we decided to sit down for a nice meal (seeing as how we had been walking all day), the restaurant we went to was called Ketsch, and it was AMAZING. We got an all you can eat buffet and a huge cocktail for only 7 euros! This is amazingly cheap considering every meal (including fast food) if minimum 10-12 euros. The priciest thing i have found in travel has been meal expenses...BRACE YOURSELF! lol





The fifth day was spent mostly taking in the city one last time... eating gelatos...Italian coffees...you name it, whatever i had not had the chance to see and so i did on the last day. The trip organizers planned an evening out for us and it was an absolute blast! We danced the night away until about 5 am!





Overall I had a great time in Italy and I am so happy to have had the opportunity to go and travel and see things i never thought i would get the chance to!