European Vacation

ROMA! Ok today is going to be nuts. We are starting off with a guided tour of the Vatican which will take about two hours and then we have a free day with which I’m going to see as much of Rome as I can. SPOILER ALERT: I get home at 10:30pm tonight with blisters on my feet. IDIOT ALERT: I was wearing knock-off crocs that I bought at a service station. Let’s start at the Vatican because that’s where we started. This is the entrance. Seems fitting. The line to get in the door goes around the building and out of sight. Being in a group and paying for a guided tour gets us past everyone – it’s worth it. We are told that the Vatican museum is the largest museum in the world – It spans 7 kilometers and 1300 rooms. We soon learn that they weren’t lying. Walking around Vatican city was one of the most overwhelming things I’ve ever done. Not from the heat or the size but from the magnitude and significance of the information. It was mind-numbing. I took some pictures although they don’t do t...

And onward! I’m not sure why but Venice was my favorite city so far. It was just so unique with it’s seemingly random layout of streets and canals. I think the lack of motor vehicles contributed also. Well we only got to spend an afternoon/evening there and now we are leaving for Rome at 8am. Apparently it’s like a six hour drive but the coach is only allowed to drive for three hours at a clip which works for us because we all have bladders and stomachs. There isn’t much noteworthy on the drive except the lack of toilet seats at service stations. I guess everyone in this part of the country is good at squatting or they figured out how to levitate. Some stations didn’t have toilets at all – just holes in the floor. My only guess is that they spent their toilet money on accordions which was a shitty move. Get it?  Moving on… We arrived in Rome around 4pm and checked into our hotel before going into the city which we haven’t done in awhile. It will be nice to get home later and alrea...

ITALY HERE WE COME! You will not be surprised to hear that today was another crazy day in the land of Contiki. We left our Austria hotel at 8am and checked into our Venice hotel at 10pm. Here is what we did in between: First stop in Italy was a service station. They had real Italian pizza and paninis as well as free bathrooms for when you’re done with your Italian pizza and paninis. I was so excited about the thin crust, light sauce and italian salami that I had to take a picture. Delicious! Now off to Venice. Venice is an island and there are no vehicles allowed so we had two options to get there: a 2.5 hour walk from some place that I can’t remember or a 20 minute ferry ride across some body of water that I can’t remember. We chose the ferry. On the ferry I took some pictures of buildings that I can’t remember. Here they are: The port we docked at is right next to Saint Marc’s square. This is the most popular place for people to start their visit in Venice so it was pretty packe...