Ciao Bella- Roma, Venica, Florenza, and Milan

We had been planning this trip for over a month and some prior to the day we were set to leave. So all 9 of us were more then ready to leave that night of November 26th as we loaded the bus for Santander at midnight Wednesday morning in order to catch our flight at noon that same day. The adventure started before the plane even took off. I had been sick prior to the trip having caught the flu from the little boy I had been teaching English to for the last few weeks. So I missed three days of school and went to the doctor in order to be able to make up the tests I was to miss because of it. But lucky for me November 26th my body decided to make a recovery and I was feeling much better and was able to make the long trip.
We arrived in Santander, Spain around three hours or so after we had left San Sabby our bag in hand and faces that couldn't have looked more dead tired. Setting down in the bus station with plans to wait around for a while before heading to the airport we hoped to possibly catch up on some Z's before the flight a few hours later on. We soon found that both the airport and the bus station closed around 4 in the morning leaving us to venture off together through the darkened streets of Santander. Stunned, tired, and with little idea of where to go we began our search for a hostel for the few hours we had left in order to spend them in warmth and somewhat comfort. The search took around a good hour or so but we finally found a place that had room enough for all 9 without costing us an arm and a leg. It turned out that the other six decided that having less then four hours left of night, and less then three hours until the airport opened that they were going to continue to spend the night outside exploring what was left of Santander, and possibly (if they got tired enough in the quiet and seemingly empty town) huddle together and sleep somewhere leaving Gloria, Casi and I to the hostel. And so we grabbed a few extra hours of sleep woke up and headed to the airport ourselves meeting up with the other two thirds of the group. It wasn't soon after that our flight began to load and we paused only momentarily in our weary mided states to take a quick group shot in front of the plane and as the plane took off our excitement gathered and rose. And in less then two hours we had arrived. We had arrived in the heart of history itself, where past meets present, and the ruins of our ancestors leave behind a story to be discovered. We had stepped off the plane in none other then... ROME, Italy.
It was everything I'd expected it to be and everything I didn't all at the same time. It both met my expectations and disappointed them in one giant swoop. The out skirts of the city where the airport had been located seemed like your average big city to me, graffitti, highway, slummy, etc. But once we reached the inside it was like walking back in time if only for a moment, but as you turned to see a big office building you realized only in Rome. Ruins scattered about the cities inner limits and historical statues, figuresque landscapes, classical arquitecture, it seemed like it was a scene playing from a movie and I was the staring role, forelorn traveler lost in the midst of a dream only there was no accidents, no commical lines, no tear jerking moments, and most of all no knight on his white stallion galloping to wist me away into a Roman sunset. *sigh* It was your normal tourist vacation, but a moment in a dream none the less.
Our first evening in Rome was spent traversing the city in search of the random, small side street where our hostel was located. It was then that I realised the Italians for the most part spoke English rather well, adored it when you spoke to them in broken Italian, but hated it when you tried communicating in Spanish thinking that the two were so close that they would be able to understand you. (This of course depends upon each person as well as not everyone is the same but for the most part. And they love you for trying Italian more then anything.) After finding the hostel and settling in a little my stomach decided it was hungry and decided to announce that and so we set off in search of a small place to grab a quick snack of a bite as we had made plans with a friend of Jessica's who was currently living in Rome to eat dinner in an authentic Italian place. And we didn't have to venture too far to find one either as right around the corner from our hostel was a small but awsome little pizza shop in which we bought pizza by the slice. I had a regular one that was sort of like a garlic bread and another one that was also really good as well. After that we split off into groups. My group went to continue on and traverse the city a little just to see what was around the hostel and also in search of a grocery store where we might pick up some snacks for the trips over the following days. So Matt, Gloria, Erica, Silvia and I headed out and about while the others went back to the hostel to get ready for the dinner later on that evening. After finding Matt what he was looking for at the grocery store we too headed back to rest up some and get ready. After all was said and done we headed back out to where we were to meet up with the friends for dinner passing by all sorts of monuments and other things of which we had no idea of their importance just knew they were important and cool. We snapped several pictures along the way until finally we made it to the meeting point met up with Jessica's friend and had dinner at an authentic Italian restaurant where I had Gnocchi and Chicken Cacchitorri. After a long and wonderful dinner we headed back to the hostel to rest up and wake up for a long day in Rome the next day.
The next day we started off at the Vatican City exploring the various artwork and heading down to the Sistine Chapel where we were awed by the famous paintings of Michel Angelo, Da Vinci, and Rafael. Casi and I finished relatively early so we went and grabbed some lunch at a local restaurant before moving on and heading over to the Colosseum. I know little factual information of the Colosseum but what we saw was utterly amazing. The floor of the original had been taken away so that we could even see the quarters where the slaves were held during that time. To see something withstand so much time was what had to be one of the more amazing parts about it. But walking through the gates at the front and into the actual colosseum was like taking a walk into a time machine and going back through time. It would've been at this part of the movie that the character would've had flash backs to a time when the colosseum had been filled with spectators and royals alike all to watch as people battled it out to death. All this before jumping back to the present and giving a softly spoken woah and continuing to walk around the reminents of the past. After the colosseum we continued to walk around the city and see what was left, ruins and other Roman artifacts as well as pretty fountains and buildings before grabbing dinner and making our way back to the hostel to prepare for the travels the next morning to Florence.
Hopping on an early morning train we arrived shortly afterwards in Florence, checking into another hostel. We ran into a short problem here when no one answered the bell we'd rung several times in hopes of getting into the hostel and checking in. Decided that perhaps they were on break for lunch we decided to take our bags and go to a near by cafe for lunch and come back after having enjoyed a delicious meal. Thus is what we did. But upon our second arrival we still received no answer as we rang the door bell and a small sort of panick began to sink in on everyone wondering if perhaps we'd booked a hostel that no longer existed. But lucky for us a girl staying in the hostel found us on her way out and told us that the check in was across the street all along. A unanimous sigh of relief was heard as we released a breath none had even known they were holding and we made our way to check in. After that it was exploration time. Casi, Silvia and I split from the group as they didn't wait for us as we walked into a pasta shop to buy casi some real italian home made pasta to take home. After that we made our way and scavenged Florence for all it had to offer. We saw the very famous Cathedral de Fiore (Cathedral of Florence) with the D'uomo that I'd studied only a few weeks earlier in art class. It was created to have a double dome structure or a dome inside of a dome in order to hold it up since in the beginning of the churces creation it was 42 meters of empty space. It was then finished and painted beautifully on the inside. After that we saw the famous fortress, the replica David Statue by Michelangelo (it's a statue of David from the bible his hands and feet are very disproporsional, also learned about that in art class as well) as well as some other statues, and famous fountains, afterwards we ventured through the streets to the riverside where we captured a very famous night view of these houses and restaurants built into the bridge. We were even lucky enough to be presented with a rainbow as we went to the square where there was a famous clock tower. Of which I have a picture. The day ended with some excellent dinner and preparations to leave again the next morning for Venice the city on the river.
After a good nights sleep we left and arrived in Venice which lived up to it's name as it was really a city literally built in and on the river. walking down the streets we followed along the riverside to the actual ends of the city and we saw just what you'd expected with a little twist. Of course we met the sea but across the sea was an island looking thing (it was really far away and it was foggy that day so my geographical skills are short to begin with can't blame me if I'm not exactly sure what it was) and leading to that big piece of land was a train track. Across the middle of the water was this raised train track and trains running across it. It was very interesting to see. After that we made our way through seeing all the top sights of Venice including St. Micheli's square, the clocktower, the cathedral etc. But we even took some back streets into a residential area when we really had no idea where we were going and literally walked over ALL of Venice. We made a stop near the opera house and listened as a student of the art was giving her rendition of a famous opera a title of which of course I had never heard knowing absolutely nothing about opera. Dinner was a quick grab before heading back to hostels for the night while five out of nine in the group pulled another all nighter on the streets. We had planned to take a night train that evening to Milan in hopes of not having to book another hostel only to find out there were no night trains and the station closed around midnight. So we had to book another last minute hostel this one costing a little more then the other one but none the less it was cold and I was not crazy enough to stay out all night at a bar or a club and then huddle in a doorstep untill the train station opened up the next morning.
The next morning the four of us who'd stayed in a hostel awoke to a warm shower and made our way to grab a nice hot, but quick breakfast, before catching our final train in Italy over to Milan. Milan was disappointing. After arriving I was already to head back to Spain. It was a dirty city that came off as trying to be like a New York (after all it is the fashion capital of the world) but a much dirtier NYC and I love NYC. It could also have been weariness of traveling kicking in but I think even if I went back I wouldn't like it, not as much to do or see there and price wise it was a major goucher in the pocket books. So our stay in Milan was short lived and we spent it traversing the cities shops and at the Christmas market street fair like thing that was going on while we were there before heading to the airport and arriving back in San Sabby late Sunday night to begin another long and dreadful week at school.