Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Easter Holiday: Part 2

After our adventure in France, Erica, Leah, and I made our way to Italy. Venice was our first stop and after a stressful day of travel, we finally arrived at our bed and breakfast. It was good to get away from a  hostel for a few days and experience life outside of the city in a home. The hardest part about being in Italy was the language barrier. Since we were staying outside of the city, we had to figure out which stop we needed to get off at but no one had any idea where we were talking about. The bus stop ended up being on the side of a road surrounded by fields and a small gas station.


In the end, we figured it out and learned how to communicate where we needed to go. Venice was beautiful. We spent our days walking around a lot, getting lost a lot, and eating gelato. Our last night we ate pasta along a canal which screamed Italy. 

After about two days, we packed up and headed to Rome. The cool thing about Europe is that you can hop on a train and be across the country in five hours. We spent our first night at the Trevi Fountain. It was even more beautiful than I could have imagined. 

The next day we went to the Colosseum, Vatican, saw the Pantheon, and ate the best Chinese food.

 I always knew traveling was exhausting but I never fully understood it until our nights in Rome when all we wanted was cheap, good, food close to our hostel that didn't have a sit in or water charge. Our hostel in Rome had a very welcoming atmosphere and we were able to meet people from Australia, USA, Canada, and Italy who were all doing the same thing we were. 

I think the most memorable part of Italy was running into a couple at the train station who spoke italian sign language. I took two semesters of american sign language prior to being here and was able to communicate to them. It is so easy to take school and education for granted but I really understood the value of it at the train station that day. The experience was extremely eye opening for me and helped me remember the value of education and the opportunities it can give you.