Old Italy

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We arrived in Venice at 7:30 in the morning on Sunday after another lovely 32 hour ferry ride, sleeping on the floor for 2 nights. We dropped our things at our resort and headed straight into the town. Venice was pretty much exactly like I pictured it, small, cute, old, just simple and very pretty. We were heading towards St. Marco's Square which took about an hour to walk to, and we walked over canals, through tiny cobblestone streets, it was really neat. We soon came across the Grande Canal which was huge! It was packed with Gondolas and the men that pushed them were standing on the side calling you all over. Unfortunatley we couldn't take one as they were very expensive. We walked over a massive bridge over the canal and walked into the busiest street full of street vendors selling everything from Carnival Masks, jewelry, souvenirs, fruit, candy, everything you could think of! It was amazing! we walked through the vendors, having to hold ourselves back from the good buys and eventually made it to St. Marco's Square and it was unbelievable! It was so big! It was full of street vendors also, there were thousands of pigeons, a few cafe's, and a band playing. We walked through the square and then down along the water where the boats go through to the port. Again it was full of street vendors but also lots of street performers. I even got my picture taken with 2 Carnival performers! After walking down along the water we headed beck into the center of town and back to the campground. That night we met up with a few people from the beginning of our busabout tour and we had dinner and drinks with them. Then it was off to bed as we were heading to Rome on the bus the following morning.
Monday was an early rise, and a long bus ride. It was 10 hours to Rome but it wasn´t too bad since we watched a couple movies and made quite a few stops (the drivers in Europe have to stop every so often to clear their driving hours). That evening we met a few more of our previous busabout crew and we had dinner and drinks and toured the campground (it was an awesome place, everything you need at your fingertips...again!).
Tuesday morning we got up early and caught the shuttle into the city centre. It was a pretty crappy day with weather, raining on and off, well not just raining, pouring I should say. The first place we visited was the Vatican Museum. We walked through in awe of some of the art and sculptures. It was amazing. The design of the inside of the museum itself was unbelievable, the little details, everything, it was really neat to see. At the end we went through the Sistine Chapel and it was again breathtaking. It was smaller than I had originally imagined it to be, but the artwork was beautiful. After the museum we walked around to St. Peter´s Basilica. We didn´t have a chance to go in, the line up was hours long, but we walked around the outside and saw where the Pope comes out to speak (that was pretty neat to see I have to say). It was a huge area and there were hundreds and hundreds of chairs out for the Pope to speak the next day. We were going to go down but we were told that he was saying a prayer for the little English girl that went missing and it would be hard to get in. After we left there we headed to the Colosseum. I have always wanted to see it so I was really excited to go in. Again it seemed a bit smaller than I had imagined but it did not disappoint. It was reallt interesting to see and hear about what went on, and where things happened on the inside. Across the way from the Colosseum you can see more old ruins from thousands of years ago. We made our way from the Colosseum to the Trevi Fountain. It was huge! It was absolutley gorgeous. The sculptures in it and around it were so beautiful, it was probably one of my favorite pieces to see. After that we walked to the Spanish Steps and then along the street at the bottom of the steps that is lined with all the designer stores (Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Armani, etc. etc.). We went in a few, felt out of place, left and continued just to window shop. Our last stop was the Piazza de Popolo. Not much significance to most people other than the fact that most of the book Angels and Demons by Dan Brown took place there and I loved the book so I really wanted to see it. It was neat to see. We then headed back to the campground and spent the evening there just relaxing. The next day was pretty much the same, went grocery shopping, visited the pool, walked around the grounds. Then we packed up and got ready for our for Barcelona, our last and final country on our tour.

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