Hey! Here I am again, trying to play catch up on the past few weeks...forgive me once again.
The last time I posted, I was planning on going to Fiesole and Venice...I did make it to Fiesole, but haven't gotten as far as Venice yet. Fiesole was just a short bus ride outside of Florence and my roommates and I decided we needed to get a taste of the chocolate festival. We were hoping it would be bigger than we expected, but it was wonderful just the same. We hiked the town and sampled all of the yummy chocolate. We almost walked all the way back to Florence! very impressive.
The next day, we traveled to Viareggio, a town on the coast of Italy. We went for their carnaval, and even though we were a little late for the festivities, we were still fascinated by the huge, moving floats and pounds of confetti that littered the streets. There was a ferris wheel with a 12 year old boy operating it, so naturally we decided it was necessary to ride on it. It gave us a beautiful view of the city and the ocean. I've decided I'm going to come back for a day at the beach..hopefully it gets warm enough while I'm here!
Last weekend I traveled to Rome. My two roommates, Gianni and Rachel, signed up for the Rome trip with our school. Suzy, Claire, Steph and I decided we should travel there as well. So, the timeline of events leading up to our arrival in Rome went something like this...
6:45 AM : Kim, Suzy, Claire and Steph board the regional train and head for Rome.
8:30 AM: G and Rach board the EuroStar and head for Rome.
10:45 AM: G and Rach have arrived in Rome.
11:08 AM: Kim, Suzy, Claire and Steph arrive in Rome.
Stupid EuroStar.
11:10 AM: Steph realizes she missed her connection to the next station to meet her friend.
11:20 AM: Kim runs into Alicia and Patrick in the bathroom.
11:25 AM: Kim, Suzy, Claire, Alicia, Patrick and Patrick decide to find a hostel together.
Ok, I'm done with the play by play....but basically, the adventure to Rome started out very interesting. We ended up staying at a hostel called "Fawlty Towers". I laughed really hard at this. And I hope you do too (hopefully SOMEONE knows what the TV series "Fawlty Towers" is because no one else was able to join in on my laughter....). Next, we opened Alicia's Rick Steve's guidebook and basically followed every piece of advice in it for the entire weekend. We bought a Roma Pass, which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone planning on traveling to Rome for three days. It was amazing. You pay 23 euro and receive a three day bus/metro pass, the ability to cut in line at every tourist hot spot and the first two places you visit are free. So, basically, if you visit the colloseum and the Rome museum, you have paid for your pass and saved a lot of time. We were a little bummed when we found out we couldn't use it at the Vatican, however, we just happened to be in Rome on the last sunday of the month! Do you know what that means? The Vatican is free. I have to admit, I am very impressed with the amount of money we saved and time we made up for due to our long train tride to and from Rome. Over the weekend, we saw all of the major sights, the Colloseum, the Pantheon, the Rorum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, etc...it was amazing. Rome was a bit overwhelming for me though, I'm proud to say I have no regrets about choosing Florence over Rome- which is a wonderful feeling for me. We also found a gelato place that sells not 10 flavors...not 30 flavors...not 50 flavors...but 130 flavors of gelato. Yes, 130. Amazing. It was really great, and my favorite flavor was either the rice krispie bar or the grapefruit. Two very different, yet very amazing, flavors. My friends and I also experienced our first "ice bar". It's a regular bar, except everything is made of ice- the bar, your classes, the floors, the benches, everything. When you enter, they place a huge, rather ugly, robe on you to keep you warm and then you can stay in the bar as long as you like for 15 euro...I wouldn't pay for it again, but it was pretty neat and the drinks were delicious.
I know I have left out a few details about my adventures...but that just means I need to do a better job about updating my blog. So, in a few hours, I will write about my trip to the French Riviera and let you know what I left out. I miss all of you! Much love!
Pace,
Kim
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Hey Kim! I had grapefruit gelato there too at a little place near the Trevi- but I wasn't such a big fan. A bunch of people from my group also went to the ice bar and said it was neat, but over priced. I didn't get a chance to go though. I miss Italy :( Glad to hear you're having a good time!
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