Although I wish my trip to Italy was fairly recent, it wasn’t. I took the trip with my family back in 2008, 13 years ago, and although I don’t remember too much of it, I have a ton of printed camera pictures that help me to keep the memories alive, like the one of me here (It's little me sitting in front of the view from my relatives house and the stuffed animal I'm holding is Muffy, my favorite toy when I was a kid haha). Italy was truly beautiful, and I hope to get back there soon, since I am older and can appreciate the culture even more. I also now have 5 years of Italian language class experience, and even though I don’t remember too many words, I think another trip back to Italy will truly be an amazing and completely different experience than before.
For our trip back in 2008, we spent two amazing weeks in the country: visiting our distant family, eating as much pizza, pasta, and gelato as we could, and also venturing and exploring all the major cities and landmarks across the country that we could get to.
I would have to say our little trip to Venice was by far my favorite and most memorable part of the vacation. I can still remember exactly what it looked like, where we stayed, and what we ate.....and one meal may or may not have been at McDonalds. (There was a McDonald’s in almost every city we visited, and I was amazed)
I’ve gone through my printed camera pictures from Italy recently, and I thought I would share some of my favorite ones with you!
1. The City Built on Water
As I mentioned before, Venice was my favorite part of the trip...and the one I remember the most. The whole idea behind the town being built on water and it slowly sinking blew my mind when I was younger. The canals through the streets, as well as the stunning view from the Grand Canal, were so pretty, and all the buildings were so unique yet so similar. Although I didn't get to go on the famous gondola ride I was able to see plenty of rides from up above. As soon as you walked out of our hotel, there was a canal and a ton of gondolas going by. I remember I could hear the gondola pilot serenading to their guests as they passed by. In some of the pictures, you'll also see our hotel room. (THAT HAD TWO FLOORS) Again, being so little, I was amazed by the two floors of our room, I've never seen anything like it before. I believe the hotel was Hotel ai Cavalieri, but I am not 100%. Lots of the hotels in Venice had a similar palace-like design, and I am not sure if it's been renovated since then.
2. Fun In The Sun
I remember Italy being very very hot when we went, so luckily we were able to cool down a little bit. The beach pictures are when we went to the Mediterranean Sea. I remember the water having a lot of wood chips and other debris in it, but overall very nice and a beautiful view. We also went to a water stream a couple times in the town of our relatives, where there was swimming, cliff jumping, and sunbathing. I think we bought those cute water tubes because we didn't want to touch the ground. There was also very little fish swimming around. I remember we were trying to catch some and we were able to bring two back to the house with us in water bottle with holes for air...because that's just what little kids do. Lastly, there was a local pool we went to, and all I can really remember was how freezing cold it was.
3. Tours
We took a couple tours in certain cities, or just explored on our own, whether we were visiting a church, museum, or some other landmark. There was so much to see, and you don't want to miss any of it so tours were very helpful. As you can see, we were able to make our way to Pisa, to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Rome to see the Colosseum and Spanish Steps, Milan to see the Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral), and some other fascinating sites, with the cars we rented at the airport. It was so cool to be able to finally see all these places in person after hearing and seeing them in shows and movies. And I promise, next time I go to Milan, I'm going to have to do a little bit more shopping in the fashion capital of the world than I did 13 years ago.
4. Our Names
Another specific memory I have is I remember we were set on finding things that said our name on it around Italy. I was able to find an olive oil bottle that had my name (kinda lol), and my sister was able to find a shoe store that had her name. There was also a bus that had our family name on it so that was pretty cool to see.
5. My Lizzie McGuire Moment
You simply can't visit the Trevi Fountain in Rome without imagining you are in the Lizzie McGuire movie, on their High School Senior trip, falling in love with an Italian pop-star singer that is secretly mean. I'm pretty sure I threw a coin in the water just like Hilary Duff did in the movie. This other small trip was another memorable moment for me!
6. My Favorite Hotel
I don't remember where we were driving from and where we were heading, but we had to stop at a hotel overnight when it was getting late. We found a hotel nearby, Hotel Apogeo, that had a great restaurant for dinner, and when we woke up the next morning ready to leave, we saw the hotel had a beautiful pool with a water slide, a whole deck of arcade games, a gym, and a beautiful landscape and trails. We were so sad we had to leave and couldn't stay to enjoy the amenities, but it is for sure a must-visit on my list next time I visit.
Although traveling is somewhat out of the question right now for some people because of the pandemic, I hope this helps inspire you to see how truly incredible Italy is and make you want to add it to your bucket list. After going through all these pictures and re-living the trip in my head, I am very eager to go again and experience Italy in a whole new level....this time with lots of Wine and Aperol Spritz!
Ciao!
Xoxo,
Steph
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