Grazie, Grazie - Prego, Prego

Carnivale was about to happen so there were lots of cool masks in Venice.
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Okay, okay, I know this journal entry is about a 2 and a half months overdue - I'm sorry, please forgive me :)

Now, let me take you on a journey...let's travel back in time to the home of pizza, pasta and the Roman Catholic Church.  Gen and I departed Barcelona on Monday, the 10th of January around 7:00 p.m. and headed to Italy.  Did I mention that we took a ferry??  That's right, we crossed the Mediterranean Sea on a boat and 19 hours later found ourselves in Civitavecchia, Italy.   Gen and I decided to think of this as less of a "ferry" and more of a cruise.  It actually wasn't that bad, we made friends with an Italian guy, Simon, and I went to bed early which meant I got to lay out across a row of seats (we went as cheap as possible and therefore did not have a cabin, just seats)!  Tuesday was a beautiful day to be at sea and we got to soak up some sun on the deck, in our coats of course because the sea is c-o-l-d and windy!  Around 2:00 p.m. we landed in Italy and after a short bus ride and a semi short train ride we were in Roma!  While riding to Roma I met a Korean guy who informed me that my Korean age is actually 22, apparently when you are born you are 1 and then once the year changes your age changes.  So I'm 22.

I just realized crazy lady was stuffing a bird in my pocket.
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We got into Roma that evening, found our hostel, ate some pasta and then called it an early night.  The next morning we woke up and got on a train Napoli and then on another one to go to Pompeii, as in Mount Vesuvius.  It was so cool.  Gen and I got a map and spent the entire day wondering around this ancient village!  We saw people perfectly preserved by volcanic ash, the ampitheatre that Pink Floyd shot a concert DVD (great acoustics), as well as the oldest fresco's in the world!  The village closed kind of early, so we wondered around the town for a bit before catching the wrong train home.  There are 2 trains that go to Napoli from Pompeii, one that you can ride for free if you have a Eurorail pass, and one that you have to pay for.  Of course we got on the wrong one and after some confusion and a run-in with the train police we made it to Napoli.  After some more train confusion and getting yelled at in Italian for who knows what we got back to Roma late that night.  Once again Gen and I called it an early evening so we could do Roma in a day.

Glass blowing = awesome.
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The next morning Gen and I awoke to 2 Australian guys in our room (we had a 4 bunk hostel room and they were our new roomies)!  After some morning laziness and greetings with the Aussie's Gen and I headed out to see Roma.   Unfortunately we knew nothing about this city, spoke no italian (except for pizza and spaghetti) and only had our bad little map.  Luckily as soon as we walked out of the hostel I heard someone running up behind us, turned around and it was Nick (one of the Aussie "blokes")!  He informed us that they wanted to go with us and Charles (other "bloke") had been to Roma before so he could kind of help us around.  Excellent!

Eerie.
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Our group then headed to get our obligatory cappuccino's.  Why are they obligatory you ask?  Because Italy not only invented the cappuccino, but has the best in the world - I had at least 2 a day the entire week I was in Italy!  So after an amazing 1 euro cappuccino we got day bus passes and headed to Vatican city.  We walked around there for a bit and then decided to head over to the Sistine Chapel.  Once we found the signs going there we discovered that it closed at 12:30 and it was 12:20!!!  The four of us ran out hearts out, only to be shut out at the doors.  It was 12:27, but they stop letting people in at 12:25.  It was only open from 10:00-12:30 that day, not cool.  That was a bit disappointing, especially since it's the one thing Charles wanted to see, but we continued on after that.  We went to the Spanish Steps (138, we counted, twice) and just wondered around all day.

Piazza San Marco.
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We headed back to the hostel about 4 p.m. and took showers then decided to go on a pub crawl that evening.  I managed to get myself quite "smitten" with one of the Aussies, Nick, so it was a bit sad when we left but we pushed on to Firenze (Florence) the next morn.  We arrived in the afternoon, found our hostel and immediately went to find some food.  After a bit of wondering we found an amazing Chinese food place.  I know, I know - we're in Italy and you're thinking we must gorge ourselves on pizza and pasta the whole time.  Wrong.  After eating it all through Barcelona (Missy prefers food with meat, bread and cheese which equals pizza) and in Roma our taste buds as well as our digestive tracts needed a break.

View from our hostel in Florence.
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Our three days spent here were quite enjoyable and laid back.  We made friends with our roommate, Alfredo from Chile, and so we walked around with him one day and saw the Uffizi Gallery.  The museum was rather large so we spent a few hours there.  The main attraction there is The Birth of Venus (think naked woman standing in an oyster shell) by Botticelli and it was amazingly huge and incredible to look at.  Another highlight of Firenze is the markets!!  They are huge and you can find everything counterfeit there (Prada, Louis Vuitton, etc).  I ended up getting a "Ciao, Ciao" shirt that looks like the Coca-Cola label and a Zinedine Zidane jersey.  They weren't that expensive and you can't beat some good shopping!!  Finally, the last great thing about Firenze was a castle/museum that we visited - we went on a secret passages tour!!!  It was so neat, we actually got to go through doors that were hidden behind paintings!  Mi amo Firenze.

Room with secret passages.
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Now, originally after Firenze we were going to go back to Paris but we decided to just throw Venice in there while we were in Italy.  Really, how could we leave Italy without going to Venice??  We couldn't.  We left Firenze on Monday the 15th and got to Venezia 2 hours later.  Besides the obvious attraction to Venezia another nice thing was that our Australian mates were there at the same time, so I got to see my Aussie again :) We then went to our hotel, met up with Charles and Nick, and went exploring.  Venenzia is very very small, but very very confusing.  The Italians managed to cram an unbelievable amount of small roads and bridges on that little island.  Luckily the title of navigator was never bestowed upon me so I just followed the other three the whole time.  *EDIT*  I have to add another entry because this one is too long!  Sorry guys...