Florence, Rome, & Venice | Travel Diary #2

Hello, lovelies! Today, I’m sharing my Italy Travel Diary. Like I said in my last post, I’m going to write detailed recaps for most of the cities I visited later on. This post is just a reflection and a compilation of random events throughout my trip. I hope you enjoy.

Related – London, Paris, & Swiss Alps | Travel Diary #1

//Short Stops

There were two stopovers in between each trip. We stopped in Pisa, Italy on our way to Florence from Switzerland for the obvious photo op. I wasn’t super interested in seeing Pisa until I found a picture of my dad standing in front of it when he was one year old. Once I found that I knew I wanted a good picture of myself in front of it to put next to my dad’s.

Honestly, Pisa was my least favorite Italian city, but to be fair, we were only there for two hours. It was very crowded and touristy, but the gelato was cheap.

Our other stop was Verona. We stopped here on our drive from Rome to Venice. Verona was really pretty and I can see myself spending a day there the next time I go to Italy. It wasn’t as crowded as Rome (with the exception of Juliet’s balcony), but it was a nice place to walk around in between the long drive.

//Florence

On our first night in Florence, Topdeck provided our meal at a restaurant, so we didn’t have to pay anything. It was there that I learned that pasta is considered an appetizer, not the main dish. The restaurant was also attached to a Karaoke bar, and we were there until 2 AM. M and I got on the stage and sang Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. It was a lot of fun.

The next day, we had a walking tour of Florence. We got to see all the main sights and walk around. There was a very underwhelming leather demonstration provided by the tour. We learned more about how leather is made by M afterward than we did at the leather shop.

Then we walked around for a few hours and ate lunch. In Italy, many restaurants charge you for eating at the tables inside the restaurants, so we got food to-go. That was the first time I’ve ever eaten pasta as street food.

//Camping Upgrades

I picked the most inexpensive Europe tour, which was a camping trip. Half the accommodations we were staying in throughout the month were campsites. Italy was one of the countries where we were supposed to be camping for the whole week, which makes sense since it’s an expensive country.

As it turns out, we only camped one night that week in Florence. The rest of the time, we were upgraded to cabins. As in K and I had a little cabin with its own bathroom to ourselves instead of camping in our tent for five days. It was amazing! The five of us had cabins next to each other and there were little tables outside where we’d hang out at night. It was amazing after freezing in Switzerland. I honestly really liked camping once it got warmer, but those camping upgrades were a highlight of Italy. Our only complaint was the Wifi, but we didn’t care since we could control the heater and had privacy.

//Rome & Vatican City

The full day in Rome was the first beautiful sunny day we had on the trip (It was Day 5). The night before, we did a walking tour of the city and it was drizzling rain the whole time. Since we were able to all of the big sights on the walking tour, Rome was not a hectic of a day as Paris.

K, M, and I paid for the optional tour of Vatican City (the smallest country in the world), so that was where we headed in the morning. The tour was great and the Vatican is absolutely beautiful. The ceilings and art on the walls were so intricate that the Sistine Chapel was kind of underwhelming (Though when you remember that it was painted by one person, it’s far more impressive). It was still really cool to see. I’m not Christian, but the Brazilian members of our tour group had tears in their eyes there.

I also learned that the only people allowed to live in Vatican City are the clergy and the Swiss guard. Since Switzerland is a neutral country, its soldiers are sent to guard the Vatican.

After the tour, the three of us found a little cafe to sit in and talk. We had cappuccinos, cannolis, and gelato. We only meant to have coffee but kept ordering things because the food looked so good and the air conditioning was tempting.

After that, we left Vatican City and walked to the central part of Rome to meet up with C and R. They had already eaten lunch, so we walked around some more and saw the Trevi Fountain again, which was far more impressive than we thought it would be.  (It was HUGE).

I also haggled for sunglasses from a street vendor since I forgot to pack sunglasses on the trip and this was the first day I actually needed a pair. He tried to charge me twenty euros, but I wouldn’t budge for anything over five.

We also saw the cat sanctuary. The night before, when our tour guide Fran was giving us the tour, she showed us the place Julius Caesar was killed. We all know the story, but what I didn’t know was that the Romans have turned the area into a cat sanctuary. You heard me! They take all the stray cats, neuter them and put them in the pit where Julius Caesar died! I did not expect to learn that.

I need to move on. There’s going to be a full Rome recap, so I don’t want to waste my time writing everything here. We got back to the campsite at around 6:00 because our Topdeck chef Nyssa was cooking us dinner that night. We bought chips, drinks, and chocolates at a grocery store and hung out at the patio table in front of our cabins for an hour before showering and heading to dinner. It was a nice way to cap off an amazing day in Rome.

//Venice

We were upgraded to a cabin again in Venice, which was a godsend since it was pouring rain the entire time we were there. Even so, it was by far the most beautiful city we visited in Italy. You couldn’t take a bad picture there. Everything was gorgeous. 

We weren’t actually staying in Venice (most people don’t since it’s so expensive), so we had to take a bus to the edge of the city. There were two buses and my tour group was on the first one. It was drizzling that morning, so breakfast was late. R was feeling really sick. She was the first of our group to get sick. By the end of the tour, literally, everyone on the bus had a cough at one point because we were all soaked in the rain. I ran over to my cabin to grab Tylenol for her and by the time I got back (literally five minutes later) the first bus had left. I wasn’t super panicky since I knew there was another bus. I also wasn’t the only one on my tour who missed the first bus to Venice, so it was all fine.

The four of us ended up doing the walking tour with the other Topdeck group, and I met up with my friends later. I rode a gondola in the rain. I wish it was sunny, but everything was still absolutely beautiful. Venice is a very walkable city. There are no cars. Everyone travels by boat (even their ambulances are boats). That day was very much about our quest to get warm. I ate this amazing sandwich there. I devoured it so quickly that I forgot to take a picture. R felt so bad that I had missed the bus getting her medicine, but I told her that I wasn’t upset since I missed the bus for a good reason.

By the time we got back to our cabin at 5:30 (if it weren’t raining, we’d have stayed all day), my clothes were soaked right down to my bra. I took a hot shower then napped. That night, Nyssa made us homemade tiramisu and it was absolutely delicious. I definitely want to go back to Venice again someday. Particularly when there’s better weather.

//Food

• So Much Pasta – I ate pasta at least once a day while I was in Italy. It was all so good!
• We had gelato every day – except when it rained in Venice. We bought hot chocolate that day.
• Pizza – I ate way more pasta than pizza. I have no regrets

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Well, that’s my second travel diary. I hope you enjoyed. I’m going to start posting once a week on Tuesdays because I genuinely don’t have time to blog twice a week no matter how much I aspire to. Expect Travel Diary 3 in a few weeks.

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