First off, the plane trip over was excellent. I say this only because I don't remember it. Yep. I took a whole entire sleeping pill. The only problem was, I was still drugged when it was time to get off the plane. No worries people. I just winged it. What was the airport like in Italy you might ask? I have no idea. I don't remember a thing. All I remember was that I needed to get back to sleep ASAP because I was feeling a little sick just trying to wing it. Once we arrived in the place that held the Colosseum, Rome, we checked into our hotel room and slept off the rest of the sleeping pill. I woke up refreshed and ready to attend the welcome dinner. Our tour group was a group that included kids. There were several families there with their children. While I don't mind kids at all, some of the families were a little (for lack of a better word) snobby. But I didn't care. I was in the same place that the Colosseum was actually in. My long awaited dream was about to come true at last.
The very first stop on our trip was the Colosseum. When we were walking towards this place I couldn't say a word. There it was. It was better than what I remembered in my Social Studies book several years before. We by passed all the long lines and walked right into the place. I couldn't believe it. I touched the walls, sat down on a steps, and took tons of pictures. My dream had finally come true. It is hard to describe a feeling like that after holding on to the dream for over 12 years. When we were leaving the Colosseum, we found a column where someone had scraped the Texas A&M symbol on it. Naturally, my sister and I had to stop and "WHOOP" in front of it. There are pictures. It was fantastic! I have even had a lovely conversation with the Superintendent of my school district about this. Yes! This is true! It was exceptionally weird, but so awesome at the same time! And that was it! My dream came true. I could go home....Actually, that didn't happen of course. We went to the Pantheon next. I learned so much in this one place. It was hard to imagine what it would have looked like at the time of Caesar. It was a really neat place to visit. After that we went to the Spanish Steps. There was this really neat boat fountain at the front of the steps and then I went all the way up to the top. There were like 138 steps I believe and tons of people. Very cool. Then we went to the Trevi Fountain next. This was also one of my favorite places. This fountain is way larger than I expected. We also threw in 3 coins into the fountain with our left hand over our right shoulder with our backs turned. Tradition states that if you do this then you will return to Rome one day. Anyone want to come with me?
The next day we went to the Vatican City and also saw Saint Peter's Basilica. I think throughout my tour I just made all these weird noises because of the beauty of this place. We saw the gardens the Pope walks in. I saw the Pope's sleeping quarters (from the outside), I saw the room (from the outside) that the Pope died in and they came to the window to announce his death; being a Catholic this was something special to see. I couldn't believe I was there. I also was able to see all the places that was shown on the news when they chose a new Pope; the famous smokestack, the door, the guards, everything. We went inside Saint Peter's Basilica and my breath was taken away from me (again). To be able to sit there and have mass would be a dream come true. We went into the Sistine Chapel and saw the famous ceiling Michelangelo painted. I have never seen a more beautiful ceiling in my life. Way better than what is in the Golf Ball ride at Disney World!! I bought a rosary and a case for it and have it by my bed. One of my treasured items.
The next day we traveled out to the country town of Orvieto. I. Love. It. Here. I could've thought no better a place to live (at least I thought that at that time of the trip). There was this gihugic duomo in the middle of the small town. The people were great and they had fabulous pottery. I bought me some dishes for my nonexistent kitchen. The view there was absolutely amazing too. We traveled on to the Tuscany area next. It was so nice to get away from the cities for a while. We had a lovely wine tasting and I fell in love with red wine here.
We headed to the Castello Vicchiomggio to make some pasta. We got a lesson on how to make pasta from scratch including bow tie pasta. I had a blast! I mean not very many people can say they learned how to make pasta from scratch in Italy! I sure did rock the shower cap we had to wear! Up next was Florence. I didn't really like it here. There were too many people. I'm not a fan of crowds. Too many people in one spot tends to freak me out a bit. But I just grinned and beared it and went to see the Statue of David. I couldn't take pictures of the statue, but there were many people drawing it. It was an interesting thing to see. I also bought a tablcloth for my nonexistent table. We headed back to our little hotel in the country. It was such a neat place to stay. I loved all the green and walking trails. I even took a swim in the pool just so I can now say I swam in Tuscany. Now, I loved all the green, however, my allergies did not. I ended up losing my voice for awhile. That was so fun croaking around like an idiot....not.
The next day I took my croaking self aboard the Eurostar train. Very neat I must say. We were heading to Venice. Now, I didn't know what to expect here except they had gondola rides. When we arrived we hopped on to a gondola and I had my very first gondola ride experience. First off, the gondoliers are not like in the movies. The one that I had was actually steering the gonola while talking on the cell phone. There has got to be a law that that is wrong somewhere. Once we got off the gondola we had a bit of a walking tour around Venice. And this was it. The moment I knew that this was THE place I could live. Orvieto who? Venice was my place to live. Even now, if you told me that I had to move here tomorrow, I would in a heart beat. I love the people, the streets that are like mazes, and the birds are nice to me (long story-lets just say the birds in America hate me).
We saw Saint Mark's Basilica. What a beautiful site to see. I can't even describe it. One of my favorite places. I also fed the birds there in Saint Mark's Square. Bird flu, schmird flu I say! It was really cool. The birds would jump in my hand and just stay there while they ate. Very very neat. Definitely a moment I will never forget. While in Venice we had the pleasure of going into a mask making shop and learned how they make masks for the Carnivale. I took loads of pictures. Then we even got the opportunity to decorate our own masks. This was a very cool lesson. I have actually for three years now taken this lesson and taught my students this; even ending the lesson with the kids decorating their own masks. When we had a chance to explore Venice on our own, we went down to the boat areas where there were some local artists. I bought a painting from one of them who painted the Bridge of Sighs. This was a really neat bridge. I walked down to the actual bridge and snapped a few thousand photos.
The last day we had our farewell dinner at our hotel. We also were taught the fundamentals of the famous dance "Il Minuetto." So I dusted off my dancing feet and had a blast!
The one thing I wished would have happen was that the people in our group were a little bit more friendly. I experienced so many great things in Italy and Disney took real good care of us. This was a life adventure I'll never forget.
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