ciao bella, italy is the best thing thats happened to me.

it's tough to recap or even name a "favorite site" or "favorite activity" the whole italy experience was one i would never trade back for the 2,500 bucks it costed... I filled a whole sketchbook up with writing/drawings/ticket stubs/napkins/anything you can imagine. The most fair thing would be to post pictures from some highlights if i can force myself to identify them as better than the other things we did. so... i'll figure out how to put them up for you guys!


First we went to rome. we arrived on saturday night after an all night flight to heathrow/england followed by a quick 2 hour flight into roma. Rome is sooo beautiful! and every corner you turn theres another piece of history standing there. even the streets run through the ancient walls that were around 1500 years ago! history is just alive all over the place! my favorite monument there was the Trevi Fountain. Aside from the hundreds of ppl crowded there at any hour of the day, it is magnificent. Rumor has it, if you throw a coin in the water with your right hand over your left shoulder, you will return to rome some day. Here goes nothin!





Rome also included trips to: The Vatican, colleseum, ancient ruins (forum), piazza navona (artsy town square with great chocolate desserts called tartufas and cute men playing guitars), the spanish steps, pantheon... lots of good food places.


Next was Florence, which unfortunately we only spent one full day in, but the day was FULL. we woke up, went to see the David (you guys... the david is incredible! biggest most attractive naked statue in the world I'd say, haha), went to the duomo (pictured inside below), went to the top of the bell tower with janelle, shopped for lots of hours spending lots of euro, ate in piazza del signornio, got COOKING LESSONS mmmm, and finished the night off with a trip to the space electronic discoteque-- whew! lots of attractive ppl from all over the world in that club and i have a new appreciation for techno music.




Then came Venezia.... AHHH I LOVE VENICE! We did all there was left to do in venice. Rode gondolas, fed pigeons, went inside the doges palace, ate the best pizza, made masks, took the water taxi, and finished our last night drinking capaccinos in San Marco square under starlight with front seats to the most magnificent five-piece band of a bass, claranet, violin, accordian, and piano... amanda ghessie treated us to 5 cups of cappaccino for $83 dollars.. still the word "priceless" doesn't seem to capture the beauty of the music that brought tears to our eyes our last night in Venice in Piazza del San Marco:




Just for kicks heres a few more pics:



deli from like 7 AD in Pompei



feeding pigeons


gondola lovin




Anyone who now wants to backpack through europe with me... lets DO IT! Italy was amazing. I'm super lucky. Theres so much more to tell... i'm up for coffee whenever! (though it won't beat the caffe in italy!)



Jodi