Bonjourno Italia!!

The duomo

The Castle

Pizza, pasta, gelato, shopping, warm weather, gondolas, amazing sight seeing... what is not to love about Italy? It's such a beautiful place, there is no way anyone can be miserable there. Last week, our adventure began. Monday night, we took the train to Stockholm and had to spend the night in the airport because our flight left super early. It wasn't too bad, although we were so cold we didn't sleep at all! We were so excited for Italy it didn't even matter though. Tuesday, we get to Bergamo around 9 then take the train to Venice. It was so pretty there, canals everywhere, people playing music by the water, gondolas through the canals.. I loved it. Once we got there, we got something to eat. I was so excited for Italian food, and sadly, our first restaurant was nasty. I didn't know what kind of pasta I had but I thought it tasted funny, then someone told me it was fish! I didn't eat another bite. I was so put out!! BUT we got gelato which definitely made up for my fish pasta. Gelato is my new favorite thing. I am having withdrawls, we got gelato at least twice a day. It's amazing, just thinking about it my mouth is watering. The rest of that day we just walked around Venice trying to find St. Peter's Bascila. It took us 3 hours to find it, but we didn't mind because we say cool things along the way. Venice is a little bit confusing since every house and bridge looks the same! Our hotel in Venice was so gross. I slept with my pants tucked into my socks, my shirt tucked into my pants, I wore my winter coat and I wrapped my scarf around my head because I didn't want bed bugs. It was not a pleaseant experience. The next morning, we went on our boat tour to three different islands. It was such a nice day! The first island, Murano, we saw a lot of glass work, and we made some American friends! They were a cute little old coulpe for Washington. The next island, Burano, was a fisherman's island. The houses were so colorful here! This island was popular for its lacework. The last island, Torcello only had 15 people living on the entire island! It had a lot of churches. Once our tour was over we went back and had lunch by the sea. It was so nice to just sit and enjoy the sun! Plus the food was delicious! I was satisfied. After lunch, we went up a tower to see all of Venice. Some people were put out it cost 8 euros.. seriously? That's like ten bucks! Freaking tight wads.. I loved the view though! The rest of the day we just went shopping until we had to catch our train to Milan. The shopping in Venice was not for us, I would walk in a store and the people would look at my shoes and I knew I didn't belong haha! We still had fun though.

Once we got to Milan we ate then went to our hotel. This hotel was the Grand America compared to our dump in Venice. Plus it had the best buffet breakfast the next morning! Crossaints, chocolate cake, muffins, cupcakes, we scored. Next we had a tour in Milan. I loved this tour, it started out by going to the Opera house. The Opera totally reminded my oh Phantom of the Opera, it was old fashioned and so pretty! We also went to the Duomo, which is the 3rd largest cathedral in the world. The Duomo is seriously the prettiest building I've ever seen. It literally takes your breath away, it looks fake its so pretty! I loved it. It took 500 years to build. During World War II, the entrie city was bombed but the Duomo was the only thing that didn't fall. When we were inside, i started singing, "God Help the Outcast" from Hunchback of Notre Dame because it totally reminded my of that! We also got to see the castle and the Last Supper painting on our tour. I had no idea how big the Last Supper painting was! Leonardo painted it on this huge wall with some sort of putty to help it stay. The room was so reverent and when we left, everyone said they were on the verge of tears. Well I wasn't but I still thought it was cool! After our tour we went shopping! In four hours, we only hit 5 stores. Seriously I could have spent all day there. And of course, we had delicious pizza and gelato. We were all so sad to get back on our train and leave. I loved it there and I wanted to stay longer so bad! It's ok though, I am just grateful I had the opportunity to go and see and learn about some of the history and culture there!