Thursday, June 16, 2016

Italian Vacation (Pt. 1)

Let me start this off by saying how weird it was for me to title this post “vacation”. It feels like I’ve been on a vacation since I left the states, even though I’ve technically been “working” playing soccer. I guess I’m treating this trip to Italy as a vacation from my soccer obligations.

When Jaclyn, Megan, and I first found out we would have a break in the middle of our season, we immediately started brainstorming other countries we could visit. I originally wanted to go to Scotland/Ireland because it's a short trip from Iceland (meaning less travel time and more exploring time), and I haven’t been to those countries yet. Jaclyn and Megan were pretty set on Italy because they both have Italian in their family lineage, and who doesn’t want to vacation in the warm Mediterranean during the summer?? (Especially as a break from the cooler Icelandic weather haha.)

I took a trip with National Geographic Student Expeditions to Italy the summer after my junior year in high school. A part of me didn’t want to go back to places I’ve already been (I really want to see the entire world before I die, which doesn’t give me much time to go back for seconds, so to speak). But when I was 17 I fell in love with Florence, and promised myself that at some point in my life I want to go back and live there. Although I’m still not living in Florence (bummer), Italy was beautiful and fun the first time I visited while on a school trip, so I knew Italy would be beautiful and fun the second time while on a girl’s trip with my friends!

So it was decided. One week spent in Rome, Florence, and Cinque Terre was officially written on our three calendars.


ROME

We touched down in Rome after around fifteen hours of traveling. We had a dumb five-hour layover in Germany, so by the time we landed we were excited to finally be in ITALY! 

I have to say I am really impressed and proud of ourselves for figuring out public transportation in this country with it being our first time. Sure, it took us walking around a few (or more) blocks to find a place to get cash to get our bus tickets. And okay, so we might have ridden a bus through the entire city like, twice, but we basically got a free tour and ended up where we were supposed to be - so I'd call that a success! 

Once we made it to our Air bnb that first afternoon and met our super nice hostess, we freshened up (which means we put on outfits that would look good in pictures, duh) and headed out to see the famous sights! We only planned one night in Rome because I knew we would want more time in Florence and Cinque Terre, so we just hit the main tourist attractions: the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. I had seen all of Rome the first time I went five years ago, but it was still fun to see all of them again with new people!

MAN HAVE I MISSED ITALIAN GELATO !!!!!!!

I am taking full advantage of being back in this country and having easy and frequent access to authentic Italian gelato (THE best). And by taking full advantage I mean eating gelato every day, sometimes twice a day. No shame. If you've had it you know what I'm obsessing over.

Since the Euros are going on (and we're soccer players in Europe), we found a cute restaurant to eat dinner, drink some wine and watch the Italy v Belgium soccer match. We were rooting for Italy, of course. After dinner we managed to find our way back to a bus stop and catch a bus that took us close to our apartment. 

Our first day was long and exhausting, but so much fun and full of adventures. I'm so thankful we are able to take some time off to enjoy other parts of the world (and get some awesome Instagram pictures while we're at it) *wink*



Trevi Fountain





Next stop: Florence :) 







1 comment:

  1. Wow what a beautiful place to spent your vacation. Italy holiday is my dream and visit Italy in December. Thanks for sharing beautiful pics.

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