Sarah’s Creative Journey

My first thoughts before leaving Rome: "Spending three days in Rome should give us plenty of experience to be able to figure our way around Florence right? We'll be fine once we get to there, the directions are pretty straight forward, it will be a breeze now!" Riiiiight. Because we totally knew all of the small city names around Florence and therefore knew exactly what bus to take where! Hah! And finding the bus was just too easy.  We just waited around the bus station looking at maps and the bus schedule for an hour for fun! Haha!  It's much easier to laugh at now, but when you're really hot, have 4 bags you're dragging around, can't communicate or read well in another language, and not sure how to find the bus you're supposed to be on, it's not as fun as it sounds.  The irony about it is that when we got fed up with finding the bus we compromised to start walking in the direction of the AirBnB and as soon as we walk out of the building, what...

Saw the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Campidoglio,  as well as  the Spanish steps-which were under construction. Womp .  But also stopped by an art gallery on the way to the Pantheon which was pretty neat.  The pictures do a bit more justice than words.  It is cool just to be there and see it in person though, the size and detail of everything can just get lost in a picture. Did as the Romans do, and did more touring and seeing all the main tourist spots. Then h ad dinner at La Base-a restaurant recommended by our host.  The food was really good, and we got to enjoy the American "collectable" decorations all over the walls.  The next day we had an early morning so we could go to the Vatican.  Got there at 7:30 am and there were already a hundred or so people there. Ended up getting in a bit earlier than our pre bought tickets were for, but it worked out in our favor because we got in that much earlier too (less crowded than...

[Day 1 of Italy continued...] So we went out to explore! Ended up getting tickets (pretty good deal too) for the Colloseo, Foro Romano, and Museo Palatino (Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Museum/Palatine Hill) . Our first guide was an older woman was just as excited as if we were her first group she was giving the tour to.  We walked all around the Colosseum-inside, in the atrium, and out.  She was very adamant about showing us the best place to take a picture, but we had to listen to her whole spiel before we could go to the best spot to get pictures and then wander on our own.  She was very informative and spoke with not too heavy of an accent (out of most people there we could understand her fairly well).  (maybe not the best picture we got, but a pretty good one) After we " Romed"  (hah!) around the Colosseum, we headed over to the next tour meeting spot to continue our way to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.  Our second tour gui...

Ciao! Taking time to write about our trip to Italy!  So those who have not heard and are curious about what we did and how we got around can read about our travels if they would like. Plus, it's bella Italia!   Day 1: Our traveling day Plan: Stay overnight in Englewood, drive to the Greyhound station in the early wee hours of the morning, ride to Chicago, get an Uber from the Chicago Greyhound station to the Chicago airport, get on our direct flight to Roma. Reality: Obviously it was easy enough to stay in Englewood and prepare for everything the day and night before.  We got up at about 3am to get there about 3:45, even though we thought the bus didn't leave until 4:20 am.  We got there so early because on the ticket it says to get there 30 minutes before the bus left.  So we get there and the building isn't even open. Okaaayy. Well, we will just sit over there and wait... for 5 minutes, 15 minutes, someone is in the building at this point, but the ...