More Than A City Girl: Italy

“We’ll always have Venice” Wait…you mean to tell me that’s not the quote? Oh, it’s, “We’ll always have Paris”? Well, Paris is pretty cool too I guess, but have you ever been to Venice?!

When I was studying abroad in Italy for a month two summers ago I was lucky enough to spend my first weekend on a whirlwind trip to Venice with some girls in my group! I was pretty hesitant at first about going because this was my first time traveling abroad with only people my age…and now I was going to leave the city into which I had just landed for another city a four hour train ride away. However hesitant I was at the time I am so glad I went through with the trip.

I remember falling asleep on the train to Venice, trying so hard to keep my eyes open and failing miserably. Yet, the second I caught my first glance of Venice as we arrived in the station along the water I was immediately awake and alert for the day! Venice is truly the city of water and bridges.

The first thing we did was buy a day Vaporetto water bus pass, and it’s a good thing we did because that was truly the only way we got around. As far as public transportation goes, and I’m from NYC so I think I know a little something about public transport, this was pretty good. I mean you’re on a boat with an amazing view in all directions as you go from one end of the city to the other, what could be better than that!

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I love architecture, especially that of older buildings, and Venice is the perfect place to find this. Everywhere I turned, every building I looked at was adorned with structural detail I couldn’t take enough pictures. They just don’t make buildings like that anymore.

Unfortunately the weekend we were there it was chilly and there was always impending rain, so all my pictures have a cloudy overtone, but I wouldn’t have changed it.

One of my favorite memories is of walking down a street filled with shops and really feeling like I was in a small town. There were hand crafted chocolate and pastry shops, trinket shops, and of course, ones filled with Venetian masks. I even had my first real Italian gelato in Venice :)

Although I only spent a whirlwind two days in Venice we covered A LOT!

Here were my favorite highlights from the trip:

Saint Mark’s Basilica

Piazza San Marco

The Grand Canal

Bridge of Sighs (a must see!)

Rialto Bridge

Ca’ d’Oro

Have any of you been to Venice before or want to go? What was your favorite part? Comment and let me know!

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~ Monique ~

Taking a trip down memory lane in honor of Throw back Thursday today! Spent a good couple of hours today looking back at all my pictures from when I studied abroad in Rome, Italy two years ago! Wow how time flies!

The thing I love about traveling is that I feel as if I am living my life to the fullest when I am exploring a new city! When your traveling every day counts, every minute you spend wandering new corners of the city and being out and about is a memory in the making and paints a story to tell later. It’s tiring, but exciting; a huge contrast to my recent days where I’ve slept late and spent my days on the computer and not leaving the house.

So let’s start at the beginning. Although I went to Italy with a group it was my first time traveling abroad by myself (without my parents that is)—a big step for a homebody like me. Since I was going to another country where I didn’t speak the language we always travelled in groups. When we first arrived I would never have imagined being able to navigate the city by myself. However, a month later on our last days in Rome I had two days all to myself. And guess what, they turned out to be my favorite days of the whole trip! I finally had the chance to explore the beautiful city and do just what I wanted, not what other people in the group wanted to see! In doing what I wanted I started to find myself, going through the old part of Rome with the cobble stone streets, seeing grand architecture, museums, and of course seeing some of the ruins. So here's my message to you: don't be afraid of trying something new! More often than not it will be the best things that's ever happened to you :)

My favorite parts of the days included going to Piazza Navona! The Piazza is a huge open area, lined by cafes and filled with fountains and street art vendors. It also happened to be right near Grom, a gelato store :) I may have had gelato twice that day, once being for breakfast hehe. Well, when in Rome right?! I sat there for a good couple of hours watching the people go by and reading in the sun.

From Piazza Navona I walked to the Trevi Fountain and made a wish while throwing a coin in the water (à la The Lizzie McGuire Movie obviously ;)). Although I had seen pictures of the Trevi fountain nothing really prepared me for seeing it in person. The sculpture! The clear blue water! It is truly a masterpiece; and a crowded place to be, so I didn’t stick around too long. But I didn’t leave without getting gelato #2 of the day and eating it while I watched the fountain!

Next I walked over to the Spanish Steps located in Piazza di Spagna. One of my favorite Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck movies is Roman Holiday and since I felt as if I was having my own little Roman Holiday seeing the Spanish Steps was a must since it is one of the places Audrey’s character goes first in the film! While walking up the steps felt as if I could have been walking up stairs anywhere it was the view from the top that really got me. The whole city right there! I don’t know how long I stood there admiring the view…and taking pictures!

The next day I woke up early and headed over the open-air market in Piazza Campo de’Fiori. There I found an abundance of fresh fruit & veggies, dried fruit, homemade pasta, fresh orange juice, and much, much more. Everywhere you look you see color, and the best part is it's all natural.

After all that shopping I was hungry, so what could cure that, gelato of course! The other day I had passed by a huge gelato place and decided to head back to try it. Turns out I had found on of the most famous gelato stores in Rome! Della Palma Gelato di Roma (located at Via della Maddalena, 19-23, Roma, Italy—incase you wanted to go) has 150 flavors and more! Walking in all you see are cases and cases of gelato spanning the walls and lines of people just waiting to try a new flavor! I ended up treating myself and getting three scoops—chocolate, hazelnut, and strawberry—double yum!

And that’s all I did for two days! Simple and sweet, but perfect.

Over the course of the month as a class we visited so many other things in the city and had weekend trips to Venice, Florence, and Pompeii, which I’ll write about in another post. All of them were special in their own way, although visiting Florence has a special place in my heart!

While in Rome here were a couple of my other favorite spots:

The Victor Emmanuel II Monument (aka the Altare della Patria) located in Piazza Venezia

The Roman Forum and Palatine Hill located at Via di San Gregorio, 00193 Roma, Italy.

Here I specifically remember I could feel the history of the spot where we stood, and all the people who stood there before me.

The Vatican

I think it goes without saying that if you are going to visit Rome you are going to visit the Vatican. I was lucky enough to be able to tour the Vatican museum with my class and I think I took over one hundred pictures there alone. The ceilings and walls are adorned with paintings that you can’t pass up the opportunity to see. My favorite thing about the Vatican museum was the attention to detail on every little corner of everything you laid eyes on from the door handles to the windows to the artwork itself.