Italy

[Shadowknight 54]

So, I got home from Italy late last night/early this morning (depending on how you look at it). I promised I'd tell my stories, so here we go. In chronological order, no less. I'll drop some little notes in places, just to make sure everyone understands completely.

Airplane

We board the plane at 7 AM, fly to Houston, continue on to Newark, and then keep going into Milan. Nothing much happened on the flight, except that I watched The Hurt Locker. It was pretty good.

Day 1

We landed in Milan, and exchanged our currency for Euros. Then, we boarded our bus for the first time and drove to Verona (if you don't know about Verona, it was where Romeo and Juliet took place), where we saw Juliet's balcony and got to experience the wonderful taste of genuine Italian food for the first time. I had pizza, topped with potatoes and some vegetable I couldn't identify. It was probably one of the most delicious things I've eaten.

We wandered about Verona for a few hours, then got back on the bus and drove to the first hotel of the trip. It was a tiny place, rated only 2 stars (unlike here in the US, all the hotels there make their ratings clearly visible). I roomed with a guy I'd never met. Oh, and there was no shower in our bathroom. That is to say, no dedicated shower, because there was a hose on the wall and a drain in the middle of the room. Both me and my roommate managed not to ruin anything, though we did get the bidet a bit wet because it was right next to the hose.

The first night was crazier than I had expected. Almost every single person in our group (including the chaperons) got totally drunk. Curfew simply didn't happen. I went to bed around midnight having had only a single glass of white wine, which was actually pretty good. My roommate got back around 2 AM, said that he was really tired, and then passed out.

Memorable things: Potato pizza, Juliet's balcony.

Day 2

I woke up around 6:15 and started getting ready. I couldn't wake up my roommate, no matter how hard I tried, so I claimed the bathroom. There was an empty bottle of wine in the trashcan, which I assumed my roommate had left there after his previous night. Our chaperon came by at 6:30 and managed to wake up my roommate by more or less physically pulling him out of bed, and then they both got mildly mad at me for not doing that earlier.

Breakfast was very lackluster. Nothing special happened. We boarded the buses (there were 2) and drove to a ferry that took us into Venice. We wandered about all day, save for a short guided tour at the beginning, and bought all sorts of things. By that, I mean other people bought all sorts of things, because I bought a hand-blown glass for my parents. It's quite beautiful, and I'll probably take a picture later.

After seeing the Doge's palace and the Bridge of Sighs, it was time for us to get back on the ferry and go back to the hotel. We'd stayed in Venice for 7 hours.

That evening was just as crazy as the one before it. People left the hotel to go wander, everybody got drunk (except for me, because I'm evidently the most conservative person at my school, only drinking one glass of red wine with dinner) and started smoking out the windows. It got a bit more out of hand, though, when this one guy started passing out liquor to the sophomores, who are still underage, even in Italy. Once again, I fell asleep around midnight. I have no idea when my roommate got in.

Memorable things: Blood orange juice at breakfast, Doge's palace, Bridge of Sighs, glass blowing demonstration, gondola ride, people getting conned by a guy with roses.

Day 3

We woke up at 6, and my roommate actually got up this time. We got ready for the day, ate the lame breakfast, and got on the bus to drive to Florence. While driving, we go over mountains, and I fell in love with the snowy landscape. When we drove past the small towns covered in the white blanket, I wished I lived there. Everything was so beautiful.

We finally got to Florence after the long bus ride, and went on a guided tour. We saw a bunch of stuff about Michelangelo (though not David) and Dante, and finished the tour with a leather working demonstration. The store also had a jewelry shop, where I bought my girlfriend a beautiful silver necklace. It's simple, but I'm pretty sure she'll like it a lot. I'll post pictures later.

We drove to our next hotel after the tour, and found ourselves in a small, stylish town filled with designer stores. Yes, we stayed in a shopping town. But the hotel was beautiful, much nicer than the other, and we actually had a shower!

That night was way crazier than the previous nights. It can be completely summed up with one experience I had with a kid who was about as drunk as everybody else:

He came dancing down the hallway, grabbed me and my female friend who shall remain unnamed, and said, "Hey guys. Guess what?" *he chuckled here* "I'm drunk!" He then proceeded to talk about how we were in Germany and try to convince another drunk girl to have sex with him. Last I was of them that night was that he had convinced her to at least make out with him, so he may not have been entirely unsuccessful.

I went to bed around 1.

Memorable things: Awesome little panini shop for lunch, plaques with quotes from "The Divine Comedy" all around the city, tennis girl drunkenly professing her love for me and swearing a lot (that was rather interesting, but I'd rather not tell the whole story. But in short, I thought she was joking, but she totally wasn't).

Day 4

We woke up at 8 (the latest we got to sleep) and ate a breakfast that was a lot better than at the previous hotel. We ventured into the city and enjoyed looking at seriously expensive clothing (I found a pair of socks that cost €30 and a €690 jacket) and eating gelato. I didn't buy anything that day other than food.

We saw David, along with climbing the Duomo. Overall, we didn't do much. It was a free day.

Back at the hotel, crazy stuff happened. They tried to put a stop to the craziness by taking us to a discothèque, but that totally backfired for obvious reasons. For those of you who don't know, it was an Italian equivalent of a nightclub. Lots of drinking and dirty dancing was going on, and I didn't enjoy it very much, as I'm evidently the most conservative person at my school. Also, the DJ really sucked. I mean, I was about ready to go kick him off his computer so I could do it, because I could totally have done a better job.

I went to sleep around 2, because I couldn't find my roommate who had the key to the room.

Memorable things: David, musical instrument museum, the Duomo, Discothèque.

Day 5

Ah, yes. This ended up being my favourite day from the trip.

We went to Assisi, a small town known for St. Francis' Cathedral and the Franciscan monks. But honestly, as beautiful as the cathedral was, it wasn't the best part.

The best part was lunch. Me and the tennis girls (the one of them didn't remember anything from a couple of nights before, which is good because it would have made things a little awkward) went to a shop intending to get cappuccinos, but the shop had just opened and the machine hadn't warmed up. So we went and ate pizza, spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to divide up the cost, and then went back to the shop. The lady was excited, made our cappuccinos (they were probably the best coffee drink I've had in my life), and started telling us about her trip to Colorado. I thought it was funny how we were excited about getting to see the grave of Galileo and the wonderfully famous art, and she was excited about having gotten to see the grave of Buffalo Bill. I realized at that point that America really is quite lame.

She enjoyed our company so much that she gave all four of us free hot chocolate (probably the best hot chocolate I've ever had) so that we'd stay longer, even though we would have stayed longer anyway. Then, when we absolutely had to go because the bus was going to leave, she said goodbye by giving us a free cake. Yeah, we got a free Italian cake. It was delicious.

We left and went to the hotel, which was actually just outside of Rome. We actually did go into the city for a Rome by Night tour, which was beautiful. That night at the hotel was actually pretty calm. I roomed with totally different people. We were all tired, so we went to bed at 11:30. That was the only night where we went to sleep on time.

Memorable things: The wonderful lady at the coffee shop/bakery, St. Francis' Cathedral.

Day 6

On this day, I opted to go to Pompeii instead of Rome. It was actually not a very good choice. We got there, wandered around the ruins for an hour, and then drove back to the hotel. That was the whole day.

The night at the hotel, however, was far from boring. Everybody was drunk again, and this time one of the tennis girls (a different one from before) climbed onto our balcony with two other people, knocked on our window, and stole our blankets because it was cold out there. I have to tell the story of them getting sent back to their rooms, as it's quite funny.

The chaperons came by for room checks, and then praised us on how good we were being, since there was no alcohol in the room and nobody was being too horribly loud. They made a comment about how there were some awesome blankets in the closet, and I didn't catch it because I had totally forgotten that there were people on our balcony. In retrospect, though, they obviously knew. I escorted everybody out and closed the door, and when I walked back into the room I found one of my roommates talking through the window. It was at that point that I remembered that there were people on our balcony, so I went over to send them off. I meant to say, "Hey guys, they're doing room checks. It's curfew, so y'all need to go back to your rooms." I opened the door to tell them, but only managed to say, "Hey guys, they're doing room checks-" when one of the chaperons vaults onto our balcony from the one beside it, strikes a pose with his hands on his hips and back super straight, and says, "Exactly."

I'm thinking to myself, "Holy crap, holy crap, where did he come from?" and wondering whether we're going to get into trouble for violating curfew like that. I stand there uncomfortably in the middle of the room while they all walk through, because I can't get back to my bed because that's where the guy who posed was. But we didn't get in trouble, and as I was laying in bed I realized how freaking awesome the whole deal was.

Memorable things: Room check.

Day 7

We went into Rome for the guided tour. They showed us the Colosseum, the Vatican museum, and the Roman Forum (complete with the grave/memorial of Julius Caesar), and that took up most of the day. We went to the Trevi Fountain for the second time, and I found a hat shop. I couldn't help myself, and went in. 20 minutes later, I had overcome the language barrier and learned that my hat size is 60 (or 7 1/2, depending on the system you use) and bought a stylish hat.

That night was boring for the most part. Me, a friend of mine, and two of the chaperons (both of whom were drunk) played piano and sang Coldplay, because that's all the chaperons could remember the words to. The power went out to our hallway, so I couldn't charge my phone that night. We went to bed at midnight, not because we were tired, but because we couldn't stay awake without the lights.

Memorable things: Trevi Fountain, Colosseum, Forum, Vatican, Coldplay.

Return Flight

All I have to say about the flight from Rome to Newark is this: a flight should not be 10 hours long.

We had a 7 hour layover in Newark, and then a 4 hour flight back to San Antonio. The layover wasn't bad (except for how it took 2 hours to get through customs and security), but I slept through the entire flight. We got home, and my parents picked me up from the airport. I told them this story, and got home and went to bed.

I'll post pictures later, and perhaps a few side stories that I forgot.

Overall, Italy was one of the best experiences I've had in a long time, maybe even the best in my life. It was so...perfect. Except for Pompeii, which was ruined by a crappy tour guide.

I would go back in a heartbeat.

[Knuckle 484]

That's really cool! I had a chance to go to Italy a while back and I declined. Now I'm starting to regret it, because your trip sounded incredibly awesome.

[Ops 2]

So half of the nights, everyone was drunk?

[Shadowknight 54]

Hehe, more than half of the nights. Almost all but one. But that was fine, everybody was happy when drunk, and nobody did anything particularly reckless.

[Max 10]

Day five is win.

[Shadowknight 54]

Seriously, day five was wonderful. It was such a relaxed day, which was a perfect reprive from the other hectic days. Very little guided touring happened, and we were in a small town, which is exactly the kind of thing I like. I'm not a big town kind of guy, so to chill in a coffeehouse with a new Italian friend (and get free delicious drinks and food, no less) totally made my trip great. After that, I felt like there wasn't much that could make the trip better.

[Arcane 12]

Sounds amazing. I'd love to go sometime. My dad actually lived in Italy for two years, so he could help me out with the language and such.

[Max 10]

My friend goes every year to visit with family... His dad hardly even speaks English. He's the happiest person I know. Not that they're connected : P

Italy sounds awesome :>

[Shadowknight 54]

I'm in the process of uploading photos to Facebook. I'll post links to the albums in a bit.