Europe was an adventure to say the least; seven cities in six complete with boys in
Milano, real hot chocolate, late nights and Roman sunrises, last minute decisions to go to
Pisa, scarf shopping, nudity (primarily in Florence and the Louvre), Parisian crepes
(exceptionally delicious with Nutella), and an authentic Italian tour director with an
adorable accent.
March 18th, 2008
Dear Diary,
We left for Europe Sunday and traveled all day Monday so my trip really started
today in Roma. We walked along the beach last night. The weather was perfect and we
did our first tour in Vatican City. It lasted a couple of hours and we were able to see the
Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. There were many chairs outside of the church in
preparation for the crowds coming to hear the Pope speak. I almost lost the group because
I was so caught up with taking pictures. We had my first gelato. It was delicious as was
my first Italian sandwich. Then we saw the Coliseum and the arc of Constantine. There
were several men dressed as Gladiators and there were stray cats living there that were
very friendly. There were so many ruins in the Roman Forum, where we visited next, and
we saw the place where Caesar was slain. We walked to the Trevi fountain where we
threw coins in and are now destined to return to Rome. Shortly after that we made our
way over to the Pantheon. It may be famous, but it wasn’t as impressive after all we’d
seen that day. We returned to our hotel after wandering the streets of Roma and eating
pizza. I stayed up all night talking with my roommates and at five in the morning we
went out to the beach and watched the stars waiting for the sunrise; it was spectacular.
March 19th, 2008
We were on the bus for a large portion of today. Eddi, our tour director, gave us
Italian lessons and we slept as we made our way through Tuscany to get to our next
destination, “Firenze” (Florence). Fortunately we made stops at two small towns on the
way. The first was Siena where we walked into a small chapel with the most gorgeous
stained glass window; I could’ve stared at it for hours. We walked along the adorable
cobblestone streets to admire a huge, black and white cathedral and continued to the
center of the town where people were sitting on the ground in a large open area with
shops and restaurants called Piazza del Campo. I ate my second amazing gelato here. The
second town was San Gimignano and I was much less impressed. It was, in simplest
terms, a long street of tourist shops. However, the architecture was as brilliant as it was in
most of the cities.
March 20th, 2008
Today we did a walking tour through the political and religious centers of
Florence. We saw the Duomo, the finely detailed cathedral with a matching bell tower
and a magnificent dome, and the Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall with a replica of
Michelangelo’s David in front of it. Along the way we walked on the famous “old
bridge,” Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge not destroyed by the Nazis during World War II,
and we looked over the Arno River. We were left to roam the city on our own after a
leather demonstration. I accompanied a friend to the Uffizi and saw several famous
paintings including Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. Many of our travel mates went
shopping and haggled the street vendors. I had real hot chocolate at a quaint restaurant
outside of the Palazzo Vecchio.
March 21st, 2008
On the fourth day of our journey the majority of us chose to go on an optional
excursion to Pisa. I wasn’t planning on going at first, but I would’ve stayed in the hotel if
I didn’t go. I heard from a co-worker that Pisa wasn’t that great, but I was so that I
went because it was worth it. When I saw the leaning tower it really hit me that I was in
Europe and I was seeing one of the most famous buildings in the world and architectural
wonder. Not only was the tower there, but another beautiful cathedral and an oldfashioned baptistery. The baptistery is known for its acoustics and a guide sang a few
notes to demonstrate; it was amazing. Some of us went to the second floor of the
baptistery to look around more and a French school group came in and sang a song; that
was spectacular. We weren’t able to go into the leaning tower because not only did it cost
extra money, but they only let so many people in it at once, the line was long, and we
didn’t have much time. The rest of the day after Pisa was spent on a bus to Milan. We
arrived at our nicest hotel at night, but we wanted to find a place and go dancing.
Unfortunately, there were no dance clubs because we were in the middle of nowhere, but
while we were walking around a couple of boys hadnoticed us. We talked with them a
little, but they didn’t speak much English. They were also slightly sketchy and one of
them even asked a girl in our group to get on a moped with him! It was an adventure
avoiding them, but we returned safely and soundly.
March 22nd, 2008
In Milan we visited their famous duomo and as we were driving towards it Eddi
asked how many statues we thought were on it. Someone on the bus shouted “15!”
Another “33!” Eddi corrected us, “There are over a thousand.” The cathedral was quite
impressive with its gothic style architecture. We viewed the stain glass windows from the
inside, and went on to shop in the fashion capital of the world. A group of us started
walking down the street towards this castle in the city, but I turned around to head to The
Galleria, a famous shopping mall with some of the most expensive stores, including the
original Prada. I wanted to buy these pink-tinted sunglasses in the Louis Vuitton store,
but they wer over 300 euro! There were gypsies playing inside The Galleria, and they
were so talented a couple of us gave them money. At the end of the day I had spent more
money than I had in any city on two pairs of sunglasses, a checkered hoodie from a
European chain store called Bershka, and a necklace. We started our train ride to Paris
shortly after. I think it was seven hours long, but not many of us slept. We reminisced
about high school, bought over priced train food, listened to music, and annoyed
foreigners; it was fun.
March 23rd, 2008
We were in Paris on Easter Sunday so not all the stores were open, but we got to
see the sights. First we stopped by the arc de Triomphe, and then we took a bus tour. It
was hard to take it all in because we were passing so much stuff and hearing all this
information about it. Luckily, we did more than drive-by the Eiffel Tower, but while we
had time to take pictures in front of it, we weren’t able to go in it, which I’ve heard is
amazing with the view. Perfumes are apparently the best thing to buy in Paris, so we
stopped at a Perfumeria; the scents were strong and not all of them smelled wonderful. I
left along with a majority of our group, and got a crepe with nutella. I regret not getting
another one later that day because it was scrumcious. Then we went to the Louvre and
had about three hours, which still wasn’t enough time because the museum is huge. Of
course we saw the Mona Lisa, but I was more impressed by the architecture of the
building than the paintings inside, although, some of them were exquisite. I particularly
liked this one sculpture of Cupid and Psyche. Afterwards we headed over to the area
surrounding the Notre Dame cathedral. Some people went to mass there; I’m not
Catholic, but I think that’s pretty cool. The rest of wandered around looking at the tourist
shops, which were the only kind of shop near the Notre Dame. It started raining and this
didn’t leave the best impression of Paris on everyone. At our hotel many of us had
determined to stay up all night because it was our last night in Europe. We room hopped
and along the way we met some Canadian boys. We talked with them until they got
yelled at for wandering and staying up too late. Most of us ended up falling asleep.
I feel like the trip changed me in some way, not only the fact that I am now a
world traveler. It was one of the best weeks of my life and I wanted to cry when we
reached the Dulles airport. Our teachers told us this was not the end of Europe and
encouraged us to visit again in the future. I have already made plans to study abroad! If
you ever get the chance to go to Europe, go!