We slept in until around 9:30am, then headed out by 10:15 to go to the internet place. We needed to change our hostel in Rome and spent about an hour trying to find the perfect one...we eventually did and quickly booked it before there was no availability (more on that when we get to Rome). Once we took care of business, we could finally head off to see the sites. We started out with the duomo (duomo just means dome, and pretty much every city has one) but decided not to pay the extra fee for climbing to the top. We were starting to run low on cash at this point, and we were also sick of stairs. Next to the duomo was the baptistry, which we kind of got duped into paying for but it ... read more

After a fairly restless night (which I won't go into), Ly and I (and Gajal) finally got ourselves together and headed to breakfast around 8:45am. It was a pretty nice breakfast, we had 3 choices for bread this time (crunchy, croissant, or roll), our own coffee/capuccino machine, juice, and milk/cereal...not too bad. We loaded up for the exciting day ahead and went off to explore some more of Venice. It was about a 5 minute walk to San Marco square, where we checked out the basilica and doge palace there. I had gondola ride on the brain and kept looking yearningly to the waterfront. After some negotiation, we decided to ditch the line for doge palace and just get on the gondola instead. 20 euros per person is almost $40 for a 30 minute gondola ride!! ... read more

We woke up around 7:30am to say a very sad farewell to Claire bear as she headed back to the States. We actually ended up going back to sleep and didn't wake up until around 11:30am. Ly provided a very nice breakfast of jelly-filled croissants and fresh strawberries. For the rest of the day, there were a few more sights to check out and some more shops to check out. We took the metro over to the Sfore Castle, hung out in the courtyard there for a while, and then enjoyed some delicious gelato in the sun. After this, we walked around the city center, passed by some more shops, and at this point, I made a very wonderful discovery: SPIZZICO. A wonderful wonderful wonderful fast food pizza place that had a pretty decent meal deal. ... read more

Another morning, another breakfast of baguettes, jam, and coffee...I am so ready to be done with baguettes, paninis, and anything bread related at this point. At least this was our last day in France and we had better food to look forward to in Italy. After breakfast, we boarded the train to Cannes which was a quick trip from Nice. The weather in Canne was absolutely beautiful, and I could picture the stars here for the film festival. We walked along the waterfront and then sat outside to enjoy some relaxation and sun. After we were thoroughly roasted, we decided to cool off by playing the slots in a casino. And then we remembered that gelato is so refreshing and can also having cooling effects...so two scoops of gelato for me please. When we had had ... read more

I was sound asleep when my dreams were interrupted by a loud banging on our door. Crazy Asian man on the rampage again I thought to myself...except he was actually a lifesaver. So unbeknownst to us, there was a time change one hour ahead overnight, which meant that we were now getting up a whole hour later than we had planned. Ahhhh we have a train to catch and luggage to haul! I was so impressed that all four of us were ready and out the door within 15 minutes. We then had to trek our luggage to the metro stop, get on the metro, take it 3 stops, transfer to another metro line, take that a few more stops, and finally exit to the main train station. It was quite a sight, and I really ... read more