ITALY

Ok so there's the briefing on Greece and how we got there and now I'll tell you about Italy! Itlay was the main part of our trip I would say. We spent the most time there and saw some really incredible things! To get to Italy we took a Ferry from Greece (It was called the Superfast II which I found entertaining). We got on the ferry in a really sketchy part of Greece. I can't remember the name of the city but we were only there for a couple of hours. We went for lunch and they told us to be really careful about our bags and money and things and not to draw attention to ourselves because a lot illegal immigrants come in through that port into the EU. And when we were in the city there were a lot of sketchy looking people standing around so that was interesting.

Once we were on the Ferry it was smooth sailing. The ferry was definitely our best accomodation on the entire trip. There were four of us to a room and the rooms were very tiny (two bunk beds where the top bunk folded out of the wall) but the beds were so comfortable and the shower was hot and ran at full stream which was something compared to our other hotels. We were on the Ferry for ten hours over night so it was a lot of fun. To say the least we didn't get much sleep. And we made some friends because there was an Italian school group coming back from a trip to Greece on there right around our age. So it was a lot of fun. We were all sitting out on top of the helicopter deck for hours singing and dancing in the wind.

And then there was Italy. Italy is such a magnificent country. It really is how they portray it in the movies. All the mopeds everywhere and the really narrow streets and back alleys and the laundry hanging out the windows and the apartments upon apartments lining the busy streets. It was really beautiful! We saw so many really cool sites. We went to Pompei (the city which was preserved by the ashes when the volcano erupted). This was incredible as there was still paint on some of the walls and they were able to make molds of some of the people's bodies, because even though their bodies had decomposed the imprint was left in the ash so they filled it with plaster and you were able to see the positions they died in. I couldn't believe it! And it really made you think about things. These people who lived in this city thousands of years ago had so much. They were really smart. The guide showed us how they had one way and two way streets already, running water, a sewage system, eavestrough and they even had a brothel. But it was really neat to see that. We also climbed to the top of Mount Vsuveus an active but dormant volcanoe and that was super cool. There wasn't the red oozing lava or anything of course but it was still really neat to get to look inside. We went to Venice which is a really neat city and rode in a gondola. I was a bit dissapointed by it though because it didn't really feel very authentic anymore as it is now completely overrun by tourism and so it almost felt more like an amusement park or something. But it was still beautiful all the same. The same goes for the vatican. Don't get me wrong, it was so cool to get to be there and see it in person, but it was irritating to me that it was filled with tourists. I mean FILLED. When you were going through the different exhibits you were literally shoulder to shoulder with other people so it was difficult to truly enjoy and absorb all the beauty of the place. But man was it spectacular. And I saw the sistine chapel! So cool!

One thing you can't help but notice in Italy is that they love to sell you things. On every street corner there are people set up with one of three things: souvenirs, sun glasses, or bags, and they are just waiting pounce on you and try and get you to buy something. It was ridiculous! They would literally follow you around and say 'come on 3 euros. just 3 euros. come on come on'. It was quite annoying and overwhelming at times. And then the one day it started to rain and I don't know where they all came from but all of a sudden all those stands have umbrellas for you. I think I had a 3 euro umbrella pushed on me 40 times in the course of walking 7 blocks. It was insane.

And that's just a brief over view of all the things I had the chance to see and do. But man was it a good trip! One I will remember for my lifetime.