Barcelona --» Madrid --» Santiago de Compostale We didn't plan on spending the night in Barcelona, however, we couldn't get a night train to Madrid that day. We plan on going to Barcelona with Erin and Rachel (cousin and friend from home) in May, so we thought we'd save it for when they arrive! However, when you are 'forced' to stay in Barcelona, only good things can come from it. We arrived around dinner time and met an Aussie on our train. He showed us the hostel he was staying at, because it was a good price. We pretty much followed [View Full Entry]

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We took a day trip from Marco's house in Udine to explore Venice. We met three of this Irish friends in Udine and decided to go to Venice with two of them, while the other was back home at work. Poor Clio! We arrived in good time and decided to walk around the grand canal. We were so excited to be there and it was really the first time we felt like we were actually in Italy. We then spent time walking around Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square) to discover Palazzo Ducale. We stopped for lunch and made sandwhiches by [View Full Entry]

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After spending another night at Marco's, we headed south with him to Bologna for the day. As he went to the airport to head off to Poland for the Easter holiday, we explored the town. This town was full of arcaded streets that we wandered down continuously. One of the main attractions for us was the famous bolognese pasta sauce that was discovered in this little quaint town. We are definitely pasta lovers and it was well worth the visit! During our day trip, we went to visit Piazza Maggiore, which was a common gathering place for many people. Here we [View Full Entry]

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Taking a delayed, late train to Florence, we had finally arrived! We stepped off the train and there was a lady.. 'Girls!GIRLS! Looking for a place to stay??' We still had enough energy to check out hostel availabilities and costs but eneded up with the cheaper option, private accomodation. It was perfect for us! We stayed in Florence for two nights, had our own apartment and our own little kitchen (most of the appliances weren't working anyways, but it was the thought). We even had the amazing European windows we were obsessing over, the ones that open up into the street! [View Full Entry]

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Emily + Jennie ---» ROME! We had arrived and were soooo excited to explore every little bit of Rome! Once again, we couldn't find a couch surfer for Rome, so we decided this time to stick with a hostel. We arrived, found a nice little hostel close to town and settled in quickly. Threw our bags on our beds, got information about how to visit Rome in just a few days, and ventured off on our own! We were shaking with excitement and we could already tell this would be up there on our list of favourites, or maybe most shocking. [View Full Entry]

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On the second day we headed to the VATICAN CITY.. pardon? VAAATTIICANN City!! Ah!! Vatican City is the smallest sovereign nation in the world. It comprises of just 1 sq km but houses the most important catholic collection in the world. They even have their own postal service, currency, newspaper, radio station and even an army of Swiss Guards to watch over the Pope's personal safety. Our first stop was the Vatican Museum. It contains a crazy beautiful collection of art and treasures collected by the Popes. We walked around this massive museum looking at early catholic art, sculptures and pa [View Full Entry]

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We didn't have much time on our last day but we thought we might as well see what we can! We packed up our bags and headed to see the amazing Spanish Steps! We were waiting for a train later that day so we took Cheeky Monkey and Daisy the Cow (Our bags... yes.. they have names) with us! You would be very proud, we even walked up the steps with them! So amazing! We chilled around a fountain at the bottom of the stairs for a while, thinking about how sad it was to leave Rome but there was just [View Full Entry]

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Napoli was one of our most amazing experiences, through our couch surfer we had the opportunity to really get immersed in the Italian culture in so many ways! When we first arrived we found ourselves wandering the town asking anyone and everyone directions to our couch surfer, Luca's house. We walked literally at least 4 times up and down each street surrounding his house haha. But eventually we made it at about 6pm. He immediately invited us out for a night on the town with him and his friends which turned out to be an amazing time, we were literally the [View Full Entry]

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On the way to Genova, we stopped in Pisa for about 30 minutes to take some pictures! It invovled a tun of running aorund with our backpacks and if it weren't for our friend from Montreal physically hold the train back we never would have made it on time ahah but we did! Here are the pics [View Full Entry]

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We made it to Genoa later at night, and were lucky to have our couch surfing host pick us up and take us out for incredible pasta. Seriously it was amazing with fresh noodles and to die for sauce, once again we were in heaven. Italy was definitely a lot about eating for us haha but WOW, i don't know how anyone manages to be thin in this country! After wards he took us to see a beautiful older part of town which used to be a little fishing village. It was very beautiful at night. We were up early and [View Full Entry]

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