When Italy came a Knockin'

Italy was A MAZE ING!!!! Seriously a dream come true. I found myself thinking a lot and really just taking in the beauties of the land. Sigh. So great! I am so grateful to have been able to go. Ok, besides the fact that EVERYONE seemed to have a cigarette attached to their lip which made for a no bueno situation for me since I'm allergic to cigarette smoke and had a constant headache along with puffy face (breath..and I realize that was a very long sentence that probably should have been several), but aside from that, it was PERFECT. :)

We flew into Rome Italy. Once settled into our hotel, a few of us decided to head across town to an LDS church to help with the relief efforts for the recent earthquake victims. It's all about service my friends. Unfortunately our timing was off and we missed them. Karissa and I separated off and explored Spagna. This ended up being our spot since we ended up there 3 times. What a fun place. We got back in time to escort the rest of the group back to Spagna to meet up with our tour director. We walked all around. Trevi Fountain, Piazza Colonna, the Pantheon and many other fun places along the way. Boy it was a long day (or should I say 2 days since I didn't sleep on the plane). Go figure, a tall woman can't get comfortable on a horrendously long flight in order to sleep? Crazy! One of the funniest things that happened was as we were sitting by a fountain, all of the sudden it started pouring. Like out of the movies. Know what I mean? No rain, to buckets of rain. And all of the sudden umbrella's appeared out of nowhere. It was insane. Apparently Italians keep em on their person at all times. Good thing cause you never know when it's gonna pour on ya.

The next day was all about the Colosseum and Roman Forum. Of course it started raining on us again. And of course, being the girl scout that I am, I forgot my umbrella at the hotel. Doe!!! Needless to say my kind friends shared with me. Bless them. Again, I was wow'd by the architecture and landscaping. So beautiful. Um, yes. It's official. I'm an italian tourist nerd. I totally bought a sweatshirt that says Italia on it. Do you still love me anyway? Hope so. Side note...Um, can I express to you how yummy the Gelato was?! Wow!!!! I'm all about the fruity goodness. I tried pear gelato and I almost kissed the man who spooned it into my gelato cone. Seriously that fantastic to my taste buds! I'm afraid...I'm a gelato addict now. Dangit!!!

You can't go to Rome and not see Vatican City!!! So yep, we did. It's smaller than I envisioned. Is that possible? I mean it's still big don't get me wrong, but I just pictured something larger I supposed. Blast this imagination of mine and the reading like Davinci's Code, etc etc etc. Or was it Angel's and Demons? Hm, I'm thinking the latter. Regardless...It was very cool though. Sistine Chapel, wow. Did you know a piece of the sealing fell down due to a bomb? It was a miracle that it didn't destroy the whole thing, but it was just a small part. I did not know that. After the Vatican, we went to the Castle of Angels. This was pretty cool as well. What a view from the top. Wow. After that, Linz and I had our own adventures and mischief. I'd tell you, but I'd have to kill you. Or at least torture you. I'd rather not resort to that. :)

Now it's on to Tuscany. I have always dreamed of going to Tuscany. It just seemed so romantic and since I'm a romantic, it seemed like a perfect match. Guess what? I wasn't wrong. So beautiful!!! On our way to Florence, we stopped at San Gimingnano. We went up the tower and took beautiful pics of all the vineyards and landscape. The cobblestone streets. The shops. So fun!!! After continuing on to Florence, a few of us took the train to go see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Hello, I was that close. I HAD to see it. It was cool. The whole time I wanted to ask someone to pinch me to make sure it was all real. But I didn't dare ask the smelly guy sitting next to me on the train. No it wasn't a person in our group, he was a stranger and I don't normally have strangers pinching me. Well..yeah. I did say 'normally'. :)

Boy, I wish I had another day in Florence. We saw the Piazza Santa Croce, The Duomo, The Baptistery door for John the Baptist, and we shopped at the awesome markets. That was a blast!!! Hello. That's saying a lot coming from me, the girl who hates shopping. :) After all of that, we got back together in order to go to a lookout spot for Peggy and George (a couple in our group) to renew their vows. So romantic!!! They bought a rose for each of us to hold. They exchanged vows. And we asked them as a group if they took one another as man and wife again. It was sooo sweet!!!! After dinner we walked home and we were crossing this bridge (totally romantic) and Shawn comes running up to hold my hand as we crossed the bridge. Too cute/funny. :)

On our way to Venice, we stopped in Padua. What a quaint town. It's famous for their university. It was funny, they strip down to their undies when they graduate/pass and run around etc etc while everyone congratulates them. Well, we actually saw this happen. It was a little strange to watch (and when I say strange I mean awkward). But fun that they are that excited about passing. We finished our drive to Venice. We went into town and saw the Rialto Bridge.

Venice was just as I imagined. So beautiful. We did our own tour along the canals and narrow alley ways. We visited churches, took pictures, visited the Jewish Ghetto. We took a gondola ride which was awesome!!! St Marks Square was very cool. One of my friends even fed the birds (totally illegal now but who's telling). But my favorite besides the gondola ride was going up to the tower and seeing the amazing view. Breathtaking!!!

2 of my friends and I stayed an extra day and shopped. However, when it was time to fly home...it would seem that Italy didn't want us to go. We flew from Venice to Rome, but got stuck in Rome until they finally told us the flight was canceled. We were there for 4-5 hours with trying to get a new flight and waiting for the shuttle. It didn't make me feel very fluffy. Thats for sure. But I'm grateful we didn't get on a plane that was broken. However, my friends got food poisoning that night so the next day when we were going to fly out, it wasn't very lovely for them. Again our plane was delayed so we missed our transfer in Chicago. Honestly, I was just grateful to be in the USA. But as it turns out, it was a blessing because our nice Italian airport people gave us bogus tickets that wouldn't have worked in Chicago anyway. The lady felt sorry for us after hearing our story so she put us on a plane with another airline so we wouldn't be delayed another day, thankfully. Love Chicago airline person Karen for that!

Although the traveling part was horrendous, Italy was fantastic. :) Sorry for such a LONG post, but I really did try to condense it and only posted a small amount of pics. Hope you enjoy it regardless. :)