This past week began my first week of Easter break – a month long break! It was also my birthday week – the big 21! To top it off, it was a week full of traveling to other countries with my boyfriend who came to visit! We started by going to Italy, ventured to France, and ended the trip by visiting some English cities.

I absolutely loved Italy! I’m convinced if I spoke Italian I could live there, and I would also be extremely overweight. I literally had the best beef lasagna of my life in Pisa, where I also tasted my first real gelato. But enough about food, let’s talk travel. The adventures began in Florence. It was a beautiful city with a great street-long market and stunning works of art everywhere. It was there I had my first slice of real Italian pizza – YUM! By train we made our way to Pisa for the night because it was cheaper to stay there, and it was a great decision. We had a perfect view of the Leaning Tower from our hostel balcony! The following day was spent taking more than enough pictures with the Tower and basically just wandering around the small city. We saw a huge Palm Sunday parade which was awesome, and browsed through the colorful flowers being sold in the streets.

The final destination in Italy was Rome. Perhaps my favorite city thus far. It was full of brilliant architecture, ruins, and of course delicious food! We were fortunate enough to get tickets in the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel which skipped the line – a line that was potentially a 3 hour wait! We explored more of the city in about a day, visiting all the major attractions and massive buildings. I could not imagine what it would have taken to build such buildings!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also got to go to the Colosseum for a relatively inexpensive price – I was expecting to pay much more. It was awesome! I tried to imagine what it looked like in its prime and I imagined it would have been breathtaking!

The next stop was Paris. While we had a rough start trying to find our hostel and navigate the city, we successfully made it and had a full day ahead of us, mostly spent at the Eiffel Tower. We went to the very top level, walking the stairs of the first two levels. It was incredible. The city extended for miles, and we realized that all the roads were in some way pointing to the Tower. It felt like you could see everything from the top. At night we sat in the grass in front of the Tower while it lit up – it did a sparkling show about every hour. It was really amazing and peaceful to sit there for a bit, despite the men who kept trying to sell us things because we were tourists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally we flew back to London. It was Matt’s first time in London, and also my birthday so we did some sightseeing around the main spot before meeting with friends to celebrate. It was a nice day/night despite our sleep deprivation and exhaustion from traveling. The final stop was Cambridge. It was a really nice small town with so many different sights to see. To experience most at one time, we decided to punt down the river on a guided tour. It was a blast – a bit cold, but we learned some really interesting history. What we didn’t realize was that most things in the city close fairly early, and we had a late bus out. So we wandered around and made our way into some warm buildings being that it was freezing out! All in all, a nice day.

Despite all the amazing adventures and breath-taking sights, I was exhausted by the end of the week and in need of some serious sleep. I had such a wonderful time traveling. Someday when I am older I hope to be able to go back to Italy for a longer period of time. Our Italian, French, and English adventures were a fantastic start to the Easter break!

 

 

 

Location: United Kingdom