Next Stop: Milano.
Catching the early
train, we were off to Milan. We had a later check-in time so we were planning
to spend the day at Lake Como because well, Pinterest suggested it so we said
what the hey. We got to our hostel which took forever to get too since it was so
far from the metro station; it also didn’t help that it was really hot and we were
all lugging our heavy bags. We checked into to the ‘Zebra Hostel’, changed, and
grabbed our things for our day trip. Let’s just say that our trip to Lake Como
was not what we were expecting.
We grabbed a quick lunch (where I made jelly
sandwiches in Burger King), bought our 5 euro return tickets but little did we
know what would happen next. We hopped onto a “special” train on accidents where
we were charged because we didn’t have “special” tickets, it sucked because the
workers that the station told us that we could go on this train with our
tickets and the conductor checking our tickets wasn’t having it; so another 15
euros came out of our pockets which bummed us all out a bit. The sun also
happened to disappear behind the clouds AND you can’t even swim in Lake Como (at
least where we were), and people kept staring us weird because apparently
wearing shorts is a strange concept. On the bright side it was a beautiful area
and McLaren shared with us that George Clooney lived on the lake so theres
that.
We decided to cut the day trip short and head back to the hostel to just
hang out, which ended up being so so quiet (because literally there were hardly
any other people). After resting up a bit, we headed over to the market to get
some food for the rest of the trip and settled for making spaghetti for that
night. That evening we made a friend who was a little strange and made us food
to share, it was tasty though I gotta give him that and that night we all went
to bed with full bellies. The next day all of us were prepared to see whatever
Milan had to offer. First stop, Piazza del Duomo, which was breathtakingly
beautiful! The architecture was sooooo crazy!! I sadly couldn’t go in because I
had to much skin showing aka my skirt was too short for what they required but
I respect that and sat right out front while everyone else toured inside. In
that time though, I saw a man pickpocket this girl!
I wanted to say something
but he slipped away quickly. After the girls were finished looking around in
the duomo we all headed to a famous shopping centre, Gallerica Vittorio
Emanuele II, where they have some of the original high fashioned stores. We
even did the very touristy thing and spin on the bull’s balls for good luck.
Once we walked around the shopping centre for some time we then headed out to
seek some gelato and MY OH MY we found a great place. It was right outside of
the centre and it was soooo delicious. I got a double scoop of crème with
nutella and white chocolate with almonds.
Mmm.. Eating the gelato we realized
that we were more hungry than we thought so we headed to our next place which
was a castle and right behind it was a park where we sat down, enjoyed the sun,
and ate our packed lunches.
Relaxing for a few hours we decided to hit our last
destination, a cemetery, Cimitero
Monumentale di Milano. You maybe thinking, a cemetery??? But let me tell
you, it was so interesting! I have never seen a cemetery like this before. It
was filled with buildings that stood tall for different families and from different
centuries; I found one dated all the way back to the 1700. It was so different
but really neat. After exploring around the cemetery we headed back to the
hostel for the night packing up our things ready for the next city.
Next Stop: Venice
Waking up before the sun, we walked on our way to the station to catch
our train to the city I have been most excited for, Venice. I sat next to
McLaren again with our assigned seating and we watched the sunrise through the
dirty train windows with our tired eyes.
We found our hostel where we had to
drop our bags off because of the later check-in time but that gave us time to
explore the city a bit! We got some pizza (no surprise there) and found an
alleyway that lead us to a dock where we sat and watched the boats go by. It
was finally time to check in our hostel so we did all of that fun shindig and
met our roomies for the next few days.
We headed out into the streets for a
canoli with one of our new roomies, Jordan from the States and we ended the day
watching the sunset in Marco Square. What was one of the most magical moments I
had during Spring Break is this street musician that was playing his accordion
as it echoed down the alleyway on our way back to our hostel. IT WAS MAGICAL I
TELL YAH!
The next morning we all agreed to share the cost of a Gondola ride with
our new friend Jordan. Once we ventured around and found a Gondola Man; he
agreed to take us on a route for 45 minutes and it was just so as;eifhjaoiwejf.
I. WAS. SO. EXCITED. It was so so cool seeing the city from the water. I also
learned a ton from the Guy was rowing and he even sang us “that’s amore” which
we were all super stoked about. After he tied the boat back up, I was bummed it
happened so fast but I was super happy that I got to share such an amazing
experience with my mates.
Beaming with happiness, we wandered around some more.
Katie and Savannah got delicious candied apples, we got lost looking at rows
and rows of stalls, checked out a few markets, got lost some more, and so on.
We headed back to the hostel for lunch and hung around; laughing and just
spending time together.
We met our new roomie aka Sarena who was born &
raised in Australia but took a job in London! We wandered around the city some
more with our new mate, wandered down through random alley ways and somehow ended
up at the edge of the city! We decided to pop-a-squat and watch the sunset.
Once the sun was set, we were off to buy souvenirs and explore the streets of
Venice at night. We saw a ton of sweet masks, marano glass, as well as met a
really nice backpacker (who was from the states but I can’t remember her name).
McLaren and I did help her choose what to buy though so that was awesome! As
expected, our day in Venice has come to an end and we were already back at our
hostel. Yet again, heading to bed with another early morning train ahead but
this time to our last destination.
Last Stop: Bologna (pronounced Ba-Loan-Ya).
This was probably the most laid back time that we had in Italy together.
We took a taxi to our hostel where we had to wait some time to check in because
our rooms weren’t ready for us yet. The guys that worked at the place seemed to
not like us that much. Thankfully, with the time that we waited for our rooms
there was a park where we laid down and enjoyed the sun.
Once we got to our
rooms, we settled in changed into our day clothes and caught the next city bus
to take us to the city centre. Everyone grabbed some lunch then we headed over
to a market that was selling a bunch of stuff for cheap!
All of us got a few
different things and we were all satisfied with our purchases. We headed to the
supermarket to grab some snacks as well as this giant egg for pure curiosity
just to see what in the heck it was. To our surprise, it was a giant chocolate
egg! HA! Who would’ve thunk?
That night was filled with laughter, good chats,
more laughter, mac photobooth pics, potatoe chips and just all around jolly
time. The next morning we took a taxi to the airport and we were welcomed with
a lovely notification that our flight was delayed; from 11AM to 4:30 PM to be
exact. We eventually got to our gate and we were off. Just like that our time
in Italy has ended.
In the time that I spent in Italy I have walked over 20 miles, had plenty
of hangry moments, consumed an unhealthy amount of jelly sandwhiches, nommed on
scoops of gelato and pizza, got lost, got tons of blisters, made tons of
memories, learned a lot outside of the classroom and I can go on and on about
my experience but I am so glad that I got to share such an amazing time of my
life with a group of amazing mates: McLaren, Danielle, Savannah, and
Katie…thanks for making Italy a time I will always remember!! I will be telling
my kids stories about you guys and this trip until they will be able to recite
word for word about the times that I had with you guys. Ah! So good.
Until the next adventure, ciao for now.
