FINAL FIELD TRIP...ITALY!

So, I left Barcelona and headed to Rome to meet up with my tour group. The tour group I joined was for 18-35 year olds - so I just made it! :o) The group has tours all over Europe and several in the States as well. Mine was a two-week tour of Italy that started and ended in Italy. We saw it all, including Rome, Vatican City, Florence, Pompeii, Tuscan Hills, Venice, Pisa, Milan, Sorrento, La Spezia, Capri and Verona. It was a whirlwind! It gave a nice overview of Italy. Now I can go back and spend more time in the parts that I loved - which is ALL OF IT! But, if I had to pick I'd say Florence and Rome were my favorite.

On the first day of the tour we had a 6:00pm orientation meeting at our hotel. I go into a room of strangers and my mind starts racing "What was I thinking? I should have stayed in Barcelona!" It took me back to my junior high school days - going into a classroom, not knowing anyone, worried you won't click with anyone, worried it will be the worst experience ever and it's for 13 freakin' days! But, luckily, those thoughts were all wrong and I ended up having a great time and meeting some great people! My main hanging buddy was also my roommate. She was from New Zealand but works as a physical therapist in Saudi Arabia. Very interesting and a lot of fun!

There were 36 of us on the tour. About half the group was from Australia and the other half from the U.S. We also had one woman from Singapore, 3 folks from Canada and my New Zealand buddy

We had a Tour Manager who kept us very organized and gave us a complete itinerary each day. She also coordinated our very early wake up calls - usually around 7am! Which doesn't sound extremely early, but when you don't go to bed until about 2am, it's early! And we had a very grumpy, non-English speaking Italian bus driver. We mainly got around by bus and a couple times by train. I lucked out and had two seats to myself for most of the trip.

One thing I noticed in Italy compared to Barcelona was the large amount of American tourists. I rarely encountered any in Barcelona, whereas in Italy they were everywhere! Being an American you'd think I'd welcome this......uh...no...because many of them were so annoying! And the one thing that I truly appreciate about my experience in Barcelona is that I wasn't surrounded by tourists since I was more living there. But with Italy, we were in each city for such a short period of time, trying to hit all the landmarks, that you can't escape the tourists. Some of my most enjoyable moments in Italy were when we were hanging out in a small neighborhood, or doing our laundry at the local laundromat - no tourists! It was wonderful! Who knew doing laundry could be so rewarding?

We all enjoyed the food, though many of my traveling buddies grew tired of pasta and pizza. I can't say I left there thinking this was the best food I've ever had though. Interesting, huh? But I guess you get used to your American version of Italian that when it's different you almost think they are doing it wrong. But, I did have some good meals and some good pasta. I think we all ODed on carbs. One meal we had started with pasta and then had pizza as the second course! Dr. Atkins would not have approved.

So, this would become the longest blog in history if I went day by day detailing our adventures. Instead, I'll just leave you with some photos. So, this is my last entry, but stay tuned for future blogs, who knows what's to come....BackpackingInNYC, LivingLargeInItalianVillaWithMillionaire, WonTheLotteryMovedToTheCanaryIslands...anything is possible! Thank you again for reading my blog! Happy to hear that you have enjoyed it

CAPRI

FLORENCE

SORRENTO

TUSCAN HILLS

POMPEII

MILAN

PISA

Hilarious watching everyone trying to get that perfect "I'm holding up the Leaning Tower" pose.

LA SPEZIA & CINQUE TORRE

These are called Turkish Toilets - you just stand and squat. No worries...I didn't actually use it. Just couldn't go there.

VENICE

VATICAN CITY



















































































ROME