We are in Rome, many more days than planned. We like it here but not as much as Florence! Florence was amazing! Great food, things to do and a hot nightlife! That's rare to find in a city, or so we have decided. We came to Rome on Monday and spent the first 2 days just seeing the city and taking it all on. We spent the yesterday by our hosts home, enjoying the park and taking in some Sun :) we decided to leave our hosts home and stay in a hostel for a few days before leaving for Sardinia. It's nice to stay in a hostel every now and then to get a break from couchsurfing. It's refreshing! Let me start from our time in Venice and staying in Padova.
We arrived in Padova after a 2 hour plane ride from Barcelona. Leaving Barcelona was a mess! My backpack was to big for our airlines liking and they made me throw away 3 pairs of pants and 4 shirts so I didn't have to check on my bags (and pay €50 to do so). I was pissed, to say the least. After arriving we made it to the bus and took the bus from Trevisio airport to Padova. It was a nice ride. We were able to see many small towns and some of the country side. After arriving we walked around while waiting to meet our host, Stefano. He eventually came and we were off. Stefano was a very nice man. He lives by himself in a condo close to the bus station in Padova. We each had our own rooms which was a strange feeling since we have been sharing a bed or sharing a couch since we left. It was very nice though! Stefano spent the following day in Venice with us, showing us the city. That was nice to he wit h someone who knew what they were doing or it would have taken much longer to figure things out. He brought is to the hospital in Venice which looked like it should have been a museum! It was beautiful and has a garden inside. I took many pictures, of course! Venice was definitely much more than I expected. I'm not sure what I thought it was going to be like. I've seen movies obviously, that portray it to be a city full of canals. It was much more. The atmosphere and architecture was great. There is a cathedral that is covered in gold and the docks are surrounded by the small boats with the men who are dressed like clowns lol. Stefano brought us from one side of the island to the other. It took several hours but we made it in one day. That was a cool city to visit. We watched a lady and her child get off a taxi boat and arrive at her home, get off the boat and enter their home. That was cool. Just to think that she has to do that every time she wants to leave. A canal is her front yard! Lol! We left Venice and headed for Verona on a Sunday.
Verona was a great city. Lots to see and our host was very welcoming. It was our first female host! She was very knowledgeable about the city and even spent a day walking us around showing us stuff! There was an area very high up that she brought us to and it allowed us to have wonderful views of Verona from above. I took some neat pictures! My tooth was hurting one night so Danielle and Paola went out for wine and spritz. A spritz is a mix of champagne or white wine and campari. It's delicious and a very popular drink in Italy for an apparative. An apparative is a drink you have before appetizers or your dinner. So, we left Verona and headed for Florence! That was a long train ride, I think it took about 3 hours.
When we arrived in Florence it took us a little bit to figure out which bus to take to get to our hosts home. Once we did we then had to ask which stop to get off at since they don't state what stop tu are at anywhere! Lol! It's been a mission in Italy while riding the buses! Thankfully the people are very willing to help!
Our hosts we very cool! There are 6 flatmates. Jenni, Vincenzo and Giuseppe were the 3 we hung out with. Jenni was an awesome woman! Very interesting and well spoken. She could speak the most English which was nice. Vincenzo is a chef so he cooked some amazing meals while we were there! Giuseppe is the actual person who contacted me about surfing. He was such a sweetheart! He even let Danielle and I have his room and he shared with Vincenzo! They brought us out several nights and showed us an amazing time! We were there for international women's day and Giuseppe bought Danielle and I flowers, mimmosas to be exact. It's what the women in Italy receive on this holiday. Needless to say between the museums, amazing food, great hosts, the nightlife and wonderful sightseeing we had a spectacular time! We love Florence! We are even planning a trip back :)
We left Florence after almost 1 week there and headed for Rome! Our original plan was to fly out from Rome to Bordeaux. Well, our plans change way to often haha ...so...we decided to go to Sardinia instead after Rome. That was until Danielle lost a contact. So, now we are back to square one and going to Bordeaux!
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