Gondola ride in Venice
Venice is beautiful
Famous street market of antiques and jewelry
View of Florence on top of the Campanile
Il Duomo
Campanile
Our hotel in Malta...I don't hate it!
Yup, we really did nothing in Malta
Dinner in Roma
A street in Trastevere
Snapshot of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling!
Beautiful gardens of the Vatican Museum
Inside the Vatican
The Vatican, a day before Palm Sunday
Fresh drinking water all over Rome
The Pantheon
The Roman Forum
Inside the Colosseum
Part of Palatine Hill
Arc de Triumph
Us outside the Colosseum
The Trevi Fountain
Last week (actually eleven days including the weekends), was our Spring Break with SU Abroad. I spent it with my friends Jacqueline, Amity, Monica, and Kiki, in the cities of Rome, Florence and Venice in Italy, and the small island of Malta. Pardon the mass amounts of pictures, but I want to show everything I did that week.
We started our spring break, or "Semana Santa" as the Spanish call it, in Rome. I have been to Italy before, and have seen most of the monuments that we went to this past week, but Italy is such a beautiful place, you can go back several times and still be amazed by its monuments, landscapes and museums. In Rome we saw all of the necessary things, such as the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Palatine Hill, Vatican, Vatican Museum, and Sistine Chapel.
My favorite neighborhood in Rome was Trastevere, across the river from most of the famous monuments, it has beautiful streets and great places to eat. We also explored Campo de Fiori, a very cute neighborhood with outdoor markets and a popular nightlife. We had a little bit of a gelato problem...and ate it at various points throughout each day. I never thought I would say this, but I am so thankful there isn't a lot of gelato in Madrid. I think I was developing an addiction!
After Rome, we spent two days in Malta. We didn't know much about the island, but apparently it is the smallest country in the world (population wise). The people there speak Maltese, a mixture of Arabic, Spanish, French and English. There are apparently very historical and exquisite buildings of Malta, but we were so exhausted from the first four days in Rome that we laid by the pool the whole time! I feel guilty for not exploring the island, but I guess I'm allowed to be a little lazy over spring break. We had good food and a lot of sleep to get us ready for Florence.
On the last leg of the trip, we stayed in a very quaint and gaudy hotel in Florence two minutes away from Il Duomo. Each room was named after a different Italian artist, and ours was Botticelli. Florence is my favorite city in Italy, because it is a little less touristy than any other cities I have visited, but there are still plenty of things to do. We saw Il Duomo (nearly every time we left our hotel because of how close it was), Ponte vecchio, and hung out with some of Kiki's friends from home and celebrated her 21st birthday. On one of our last days of spring break we took a day trip to Venice. It was pretty crowded because of Easter weekend, but to escape all of the noise and busy streets, we took a very tranquil gondola ride around its water roads. I have been to Venice before, and am still amazed that our world has an actual city that is partly underwater. I can't imagine living there and being a part of such history.
Overall, we had a great almost two weeks. It was a long break, but if you have to be anywhere for a while, why not explore Italy? I only wish I could have seen more of the countryside, particularly Tuscany. Oh well...that means I'll just have to go back for a third time!
Besos,
Emily
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