Italy: Part 2

Day Five: Florence

We spent all of this day exploring the streets of Florence. A tour guide showed us around a bit, explaining the history and such of the sites such as the cathedral, baptistery, Basilica of Santa Croce, Piazza della Signoria, and the Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge"). It really was a beautiful city, although I didn't enjoy it as much as Rome or Venice (we'll get there later). That night my class decided they wanted to party Italy-style so we went to a discoteca near the hotel. It was kind of amazing because one of the teacher chaperons, who actually turned out to be a cool cat, had to come and hang out with us at the discoteca until 2 or 3 in the morning. All these Italian teenagers were laughing at us crazy Spanish students crashing the party and having a bunch of pictures took by our chaperon, but we just went along with it. It was our class trip, and frankly crashing Italian discotecas can be pretty fun.

Isa, Georgia, Elaia, me, and Lucia resting our feet for a while. 

We ran into a parade!

And a little bit of fiesta ;)

Day Six: Bologna -- no, not that kind.

This was another traveling day, but a good one. After a few hours on the road we were in Pisa! The leaning tower is something incredible. After exploring around the tower and surrounding buildings for a bit, we were back on the road headed towards Bologna. Once in Bologna, we visited the university which happens to be the oldest existing university in the world. After walking around some, we got back on the bus to go to Venice. At 7:30 pm or so we arrived at our hotel near Venice and had dinner. We were all quite tired by then so we just chilled out in our hotel rooms until we fell asleep.

Me and Georgia, just up to our normal shenanigans

Day Seven: Enchanted

We started this day by making our way to a boat in order to get to Venice, since the city is actually a group of islands separated by canals and linked by bridges. A tour guide showed us around Piazza San Marco for a little bit and then we were free to explore around for ourselves. I absolutely loved Venice. It's probably my favorite city we went to. There was something about it that made me want to stay so much longer. My friends and I went on a gondola throughout the city, a bit like you see in the movies. The food in Venice was really good as well! There were stores filled with blown glass and carnaval masks, colorful buildings everywhere one looked, and a continuous, romantic atmosphere. To live in Venice would be incredible.

We saw someone blow glass.

Me, Mariola, Marta, Enrique, and Alej

In the gondola 

"Day" Eight: Those Final Hours

After getting back to the hotel, we had dinner and packed our bags to go home. At 2 am that night we got on the bus and headed to Milan to catch our flight back to Malaga. We didn't get to visit Milan since our flight left at 7:30 am, but I hope to visit there one day. By noon we were all back in San Pedro and wondering how the week had gone by so fast!

Italy, from what I visited, was lovely. My class had to move quickly, and at times I felt rushed, but I hope to visit Italy again and truly enjoy the cities at my own pace. The history is so intriguing, the people are passionate, and the food is unbelievably good. The country side is beautiful and the cities are captivating. There were a few things that I didn't like, including having to pay to use public restrooms, but overall Italy was astounding. I'm so glad my class chose to go there this year and that I was able to take such an opportunity. Thanks to my parents for funding it, and to my school for organizing the whole thing! I won't forget our week full of crazy adventures in Italia.