After 10 days with nine friends traveling Italy, I could write and entire novel of all the memories and experiences that happened. However, since that would be way too long I will try to detail all the main points of each city as best as possible from Milan to Florence, Rome, and then the beautiful Sorrento. I still can not thank the people who planned this trip enough because I did not have to do a single thing but tag along and be told where to go. They had planned everything from transportation, to stuff to see, and all places to stay.
Before even arriving in Italy
Our trip started Friday afternoon with a bus ride to the Koln/Bonn airport. We arrived at the airport and went to check in only to find out that due to us not checking in on-line at least 2 hours before our flight, we were all forced to pay 45 euros a person... but oh well, we have to learn one way or another. Plus, while in line we meant a very cool guy that was from London, but frequently visits Dallas and even got to sit court side at a game. Next, with all the security protocol in an airport and flying twice a year you would think I would remember what can and can't be brought on an airplane but obviously not, why would I? Of course I forgot to pull a multi-tool (knife, pliers, bottle opener..etc) out of my bag so I was stopped at security, thought I'd have to give them my passport but was only forced to throw the item away...only 20 more euros gone right off the bat. :P Once all these fun times started they just kept on rolling, it was actually pretty fun. On the plane I went to put on my seat belt only to find a lighter in the seat. Well now I am forced with a hard ethical questions, do I tell the flight attendant and risk getting in trouble or just not say anything and leave it there? However before I even had to tell her, I was getting more comfortable in the seat and another lighter fell out of the back of my seat, it was taken up by the flight attendant and everything was fine, but it made for a good laugh. For all my troubles I even got one euro that was found under my seat, its all about the little things in life.
Milan
Once we got to Milan it was early evening so we went to our Air B&B which was a nice little apartment, didn't smell that great but was still good. We spent that night at a very good pizza restaurant and walked around the city a little. We spent the following day going on top of the Milan cathedral where we found out metal water bottles weren't allowed, but got an amazing view of the city. We also went to the famous mall area in Milan which was very nice but full of SUPER expensive shops. One of our friends also took us to the wonderful "canal" that ended up being for all practical purposes all dried up, but then tried to make it better by taking us to a park that turned out to be the sketchiest place. We also saw a very cool Ferrari shop, as well as an old castle. I think Milan was on the lower end of our favorite cities but it was still a great experience and started our trip as well as our love of gelato. Although we also did leave one coffee cup short then when we started.
Florence
Florence was a beautiful city and our Air B&B was just as nice. In Florence we went to the beautiful cathedral in the center of the city. It was a big cathedral and was painted in a different green and white color. We even went inside of the cathedral to say a prayer and take a picture or two. Despite our first "canal" mishap, we did find a very beautiful canal where we all stopped to take pictures and enjoy the environment a little. One person also decided to scare me to death by jumping over the railing where there was a cement extruding platform that couldn't be seen until you were right up to it. So as the person jumped over the railing, I was sure he had a death wish and was jumping into the river, but really was just going to take a picture on this platform. The following day we took a nice hike to the outskirt of the city to an overlook location where you were able to see the entire city. We concluded the day by walking around the city and enjoying some other small statues and castles that were around the city. that night with luggage and all we ate at the best restaurant of the trip thus far. It was a little Italian place near the train station and the pizza was very inexpensive but very good.
Rome
Here is where you will need to take a breathe and relax a second because this is when the trip really starts to pick up a little and get pretty interesting and fun. Again we get to Rome and went straight to our Air B&B. Our Air B&B was very nice and was basically a house...while the other part of our group got to stay in a..... not as nice hostel. The first day in Rome we saw A LOT! We took a tour at the Colosseum where we paid a company that had come us to us to give us a guided tour and got to skip all lines. The Colosseum itself was very cool to see and think about so many years ago, however the guided tour was basically a re statement of the movie the Gladiator. After the Colosseum our guide continued with Greg, funny guy, who told us all about the Palatine hill (More like speechless old house), and then the Roman Forum. We happened to plan out time in Rome perfect too, because the day we were at the Forum was also the anniversary of Julius Caesar's death, so w got to see flowers and a memorial on his buried ashes. After this we continued our site seeing to the Piazza Novano, of course got gelato, St. Angelo's castle, a nice canal, and then the Spanish steps to see the sunset. This night also started a new idea that we came up with that ended up becoming more of a tradition and really brought everyone together. With a very good super market close by we decided to just go to the market, get food and drinks, and then make our own dinner. We had a wonderful spaghetti dinner with salad and garlic bread. This dinner would lead to many more but also to the onset of a very crazy and fun night that concluded with a small, little, accidental, break of an entire glass panel in the door! This was of course paid for, but kicked off our "spring break" feel of the trip. The next day we got out of the door a little late and had to run to catch our tour of the Vatican. We made it and took a tour of the Vatican Museum and then of the Vatican itself. After our tour and before the main church we climbed 552 (I believe) steps to the top of the Vatican. At the top of the Vatican you get a truly breathe taking view where you could stand all day and just enjoy the view. The Vatican is an AMAZING church and a must of any catholic or christian person I believe. We ended stopped in a prayer room for everyone to say a little prayer.
That night I believe we ate out because it was our last night in Rome, but I could be wrong. A few of us also went out to a famous bar district to see what it was like. We enjoyed each other companies, went to a place or two and all made it back home.
SORRENTO, SORRENTO, SORRENTO, SORRENTO
Why put it 4 times in all caps you wonder? Because Sorrento was my favorite place of our trip and definitely the most relaxing. Sorrento is a small city just south of Naples about an hour by tram or ferry. Going to Sorrento we took a ferry from a port in Naples and this was unbelievable. As a person who LOVES water and grew up boating it was heaven to get to see the amazing coast line of Italy from the water and on a ferry. On this ferry, I think every had a sigh of relief after a long couple days of running around, schedules, ad hiking because we all knew in Sorrento there would be minimal plans and more time for actually relaxing. Sadly, I really can't explain how beautiful of a location Sorrento is because even looking back at pictures you can not get the full realm of the amazing views. When we arrived to Sorrento everyone was excited, I bought bus passes that we ended up having to refund, but got to where we needed to go. However, waiting for the bus we met a "beggar" who would give the group some memories that would be carried on throughout our stay. Once we arrived we went to check in at our Air B&B, again we lucked out and got an amazing Air B&B right in the middle of the city on the main street, and it even had two balconies to sit on and look up at the hill side of down at the people walking.
We ate lunch at a small pub near our Air B&B after check-in and this place started off our (my) love of Sorrento. the waiter was a very funny guy and after a wonderful lunch we discovered that all of our drinks had been paid for!! Paying for dinners was always fun too, it consisted of me having to break out some math skills with the help of everyone else as well and calculate who had what and who had to pay what. After lunch we spent the first day relaxing and again found a nice super market very close to our Air B&B and continued our tradition of enjoying each others' company and making our own dinners and breakfast. Our first cooked dinner in Sorrento was a...... trail and error success. The guys decided to make our own mac'n cheese out of mozzarella and cheddar cheese. Although it ended up being okay, we learned that fresh mozzarella was not the way to go and how to turn the power back on in the house after we blow a fuse. All in all with salad and more garlic bread and all of us together it was still a very nice dinner. After dinner we walked around the city at night and got some oranges from the orange trees around the city.
The next day we cooked a fantastic and relaxing breakfast of sausage and eggs with milk and cereal and fruit and just hung around the Air B&B and enjoyed some down time. After breakfast another guy and I made the best decision of the trip by buying a ball for us to play with. Thinking we would play with this ball on the beach, we randomly found a soccer stadium that was open while we were walking around the city and played soccer (free for all, and world cup) and handball for an hour or so. While being on the field a woman stopped us and once we were able to communicate what she was playing we got to play with her dog as well. After our games we finished touring the city a little more and then went back for the best dinner that was cooked. The women did an amazing job with the help of one guy to make THE BEST chicken Alfredo dinner with more salad and garlic bread. Struggling less then the guys did, we had a fantastic "family dinner". After this dinner a couple of us split from the group and would have a very interesting, crazy, fun, and wild night. Getting home at different times and in different ways, Sorrento left lots of memories for everyone.
The next morning we once again made a wonderful breakfast, talked about our nights, and planned for the day. Since this last full day was beautiful out we all decided to go to a famous cover not to far from our place. In tank tops and swimming trunks we walked to the cove while everyone else was in pants and puffy jackets. the cove was FREEZING cold and while this didn't stop some people it did stop me from swimming very much. After swimming we embraced the warm sun and sat there on this once in-a-lifetime cliff with a undescribing view and just enjoyed ourselves. This would be the wonderful end to a perfect spring break. We walked back that night, showered and went out to eat for our last night all together on spring break. It was a very nice restaurant and its always nice to be around each other. That night we all shared memories and pictures of our journey and embraced everything we had gotten to do. As they all settled down to a movie I went to meet a friend one last time before the final ending of our break.
This trip could not have been any more perfect, with any more wonderful of people. Even when I felt I could be controlling at times, no one said anything and rarely did any one ever argue with anyone else or any drama get started. We left a mark at every place we went to, and I can only hope that everyone else enjoyed the trip as much as I did. The last day I messaged my parents just to let them know how much I loved them and thanked them for all the opportunities they give me. I also can't thank God enough for how blessed I am and discovered over the course of these last 10 days. I would say that some new friendships definitely were created over this trip and life long memories were made. this post can't begin to fully state how amazing this trip was, but at least you can get an idea.
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