After I left Roma…so sad, by the way…I took the train to Florence. My card was taken by the machine in Istanbul, so I haven’t been able to make reservations at hostels lately…I just look them up ahead of time and show up- hope they have room for me. Which is what I did in Florence, and it worked out just fine. I ended up in this huge hostel, which is run very well…pretty much everyone I have talked to that has been to Florence has stayed at this hostel. It was definitely more professional than the other two I had stayed at…but that kind of gave it an impersonal feel. I was referred to by my bed number when I went to breakfast. But, it was clean and safe.
Florence was….nice. I wasn’t overly thrilled with it. It was pretty and everything…but just not much going on. I discovered that I am, in fact, a big city girl. I arrived in the afternoon so I went out exploring a bit…went and found the famous gelati place…you know, the place that CREATED ice cream. Seriously…what would life be like if this place never existed…it would be a sad, sad world. As I was walking to the gelati place, I was stopped by an attractive Italian fellow in the street who invited me in to his wine shop for a tasting. They sold wine, olive oils and vinegars…so I tasted everything. I REALLY liked the aged balsamic vinegar and the olive oil with truffles…really good. And I tried two white wines and three red wines, then tried three different kinds of limoncello and then he had me try some grappa…which was grosso. Very fun…he spoke pretty good English and we joked around a bit…as I was leaving he gave me his card and wrote down the bar where he works at night and told me to stop by. I figured I would stop by the NEXT night, so as not to seem overly eager. Hehe. I had dinner at the hostel that night, to save some money and went to bed.
Florence was….nice. I wasn’t overly thrilled with it. It was pretty and everything…but just not much going on. I discovered that I am, in fact, a big city girl. I arrived in the afternoon so I went out exploring a bit…went and found the famous gelati place…you know, the place that CREATED ice cream. Seriously…what would life be like if this place never existed…it would be a sad, sad world. As I was walking to the gelati place, I was stopped by an attractive Italian fellow in the street who invited me in to his wine shop for a tasting. They sold wine, olive oils and vinegars…so I tasted everything. I REALLY liked the aged balsamic vinegar and the olive oil with truffles…really good. And I tried two white wines and three red wines, then tried three different kinds of limoncello and then he had me try some grappa…which was grosso. Very fun…he spoke pretty good English and we joked around a bit…as I was leaving he gave me his card and wrote down the bar where he works at night and told me to stop by. I figured I would stop by the NEXT night, so as not to seem overly eager. Hehe. I had dinner at the hostel that night, to save some money and went to bed. Woke up bright and early… the hostel has free city tours every morning at 10am, so I met up for that. It was a three hour tour that took us to all the major sites…definitely a nice perk of staying
at that hostel. After the tour, I went back for some more gelato, of course. I went to a great local trattoria for dinner…one of those places where everyone in there was a regular, but the waiters were totally nice to this American. They sat me at a table with a few of the regulars, who didn’t speak English, but were so friendly and told me the best way to eat each of my courses. Apparently you put a little olive oil in your soup and it is delicious…which was totally true.
at that hostel. After the tour, I went back for some more gelato, of course. I went to a great local trattoria for dinner…one of those places where everyone in there was a regular, but the waiters were totally nice to this American. They sat me at a table with a few of the regulars, who didn’t speak English, but were so friendly and told me the best way to eat each of my courses. Apparently you put a little olive oil in your soup and it is delicious…which was totally true. After dinner, I was on my way to stop in at the cute wine sellers bar, when I got harassed by some guy on the street. (not really harassed, but wouldn’t leave me alone) He kept asking me if I wanted to go to the disco, and I said no, I was planning on having a low key night…and that my parents were waiting for me, so I had to go. Finally, I got away, but then on my way out of the square, was stopped by another guy…argh, so frustrating. So, long story short, I never made it to the bar. Oh well.
So I was searching through my guide book, trying to decide which part of Italy I should go to next…since I didn’t want to stay in Florence for another day…everywhere I looked that was nearby didn’t really have affordable lodging…until I remembered one of my original ideas…and I headed out to the Cinque Terre. I figured I would give myself two days there and cut out one of my Venice days, since Venice is ridiculously expensive anyway.
So I hopped the train, and made it in to one of the villages. I followed a group of six guys to the hostel I found online and the hostel man showed us to our room. It was actually a separate 
apartment building down the street. I had my own room, but was sharing this apartment with these guys. I put my stuff away and headed out in search of the walking path. It is supposed to take five hours to walk the entire path from village one to village five. Since it was already 2, I figured I would just hike to the 3rd village and take the train back, and then do the others on my next day. Well, I started walking, and met up with my new roomies…they were starting the walk too. So we went together. Turns out five of them go to college together and are all studying in Germany for a few months, and they picked up the sixth guy in Pisa the night before and he just tagged along…so I joined the group.
apartment building down the street. I had my own room, but was sharing this apartment with these guys. I put my stuff away and headed out in search of the walking path. It is supposed to take five hours to walk the entire path from village one to village five. Since it was already 2, I figured I would just hike to the 3rd village and take the train back, and then do the others on my next day. Well, I started walking, and met up with my new roomies…they were starting the walk too. So we went together. Turns out five of them go to college together and are all studying in Germany for a few months, and they picked up the sixth guy in Pisa the night before and he just tagged along…so I joined the group. We did the whole walk…all the way to the last town. They were hilarious. I mean, a group of six college guys, all traveling through Europe together…they started telling me their stories from the different cities they have been too. Oh, did I mention they each had a bottle of wine they were carrying with them, drinking straight from the bottle, on this crazy hike? Only a couple of them were actually drinking…but oh, they were a tad bit trashed. And this was not an easy hike. From village three to four and four to five…it was pretty much straight up and down, up and down…it was exhausting! And there were areas where the path was maybe a foot wide, with no guard rail and a straight drop off…and here are these wine-drinking fools hiking along…I don’t know how nobody got hurt…but we made it. The hike was so beautiful…I mean, really…probably one of the prettiest places I have ever been. They are these five little villages built into the side of the hills/mountains…right on the blue-blue water. So great. And I was sooo glad I had a group to do this hike with because I don’t think it would have been a smart or safe thing to do on my own. God was a-watching out for me.
When we got to the last village, which was the biggest, we stopped in a wine shop and did a tasting…a limoncello tasting…the guys hadn’t ever heard of it before and were very excited. 
They had a version that was strawberry flavored that the store called “Viagra“…and you can imagine the fun the guys had with that. They thought it was hilarious…and the owner of the shop gave me a shot of it and said…”I think you are going to need this…one girl with six guys!” We went to dinner after that at a cute little trattoria and I had some awesome pesto and wine. I figured we were going to have a late party night…so I might as well start catching up with them on the wine. It was, of course, dark at this point, so we took the train back to our first village. One of the guys and I went together on a bottle of wine and we all went back to their room and turned a movie on and drank away…right out of the bottle…so classy. We all ended up asleep before the movie ended.
They had a version that was strawberry flavored that the store called “Viagra“…and you can imagine the fun the guys had with that. They thought it was hilarious…and the owner of the shop gave me a shot of it and said…”I think you are going to need this…one girl with six guys!” We went to dinner after that at a cute little trattoria and I had some awesome pesto and wine. I figured we were going to have a late party night…so I might as well start catching up with them on the wine. It was, of course, dark at this point, so we took the train back to our first village. One of the guys and I went together on a bottle of wine and we all went back to their room and turned a movie on and drank away…right out of the bottle…so classy. We all ended up asleep before the movie ended. The next day, I woke up bright and early, as usual, and showered, got dressed and ready and headed out for some breakfast while they snoozed away (six guys and not-a-one was a snorer). I had some caffé and croissant, the usual…grabbed a banana and some water (perhaps a slight bit of dehydration from the night before) and walked out to the marina. We were really lucky with the weather the day before…it was gorgeous…that was actually the reason I decided to take Cinque Terre out of my plan in the first place- I figured the weather would be bad. But the second day it was grey and started raining a bit. The guys were planning on leaving that day for Venice, and convinced me to go with, since that was my next stop anyway and the weather was gross. Plus, a few of the guys were leaving at that point- the tagalong was staying another night, and two of the other guys headed back to school a few days early (they have midterms on Tuesday…awww, midterms, how cute). On top of that…I have heard that Venice is such a magical and romantic city, that if you go by yourself, you’ll end up making out with your suitcase…so I was glad to have a bit of company for that leg of my journey.
It was me and three of the guys…we figured it would be easier to find a hostel with four of us anyway, since usually there are private rooms for four at the hostels, and you have to pay for all four spots, even if you don’t have four people. It was a long day of travel…we had to transfer three times, and all of the trains were pretty crowded, so we were all separated along the way. I 
have to say, they were a great crew to travel with. They were really good about keeping an eye on me, but not overdoing it so that I felt like I was a pain at all. We finally made it in to Venice…and once again, I think God sent this group to me because there is absolutely NO WAY I would have found my way around Venice…I never would have made it to a hostel, or anywhere else. Venice is a group of 180 little islands and over 400 bridges…there aren’t any cars- the taxis are boats, and most of the streets don’t have names, they zig zag in and out of each other…it is a terribly ridiculous place to attempt to navigate. And you all know how directionally challenged I am in the first place…so I was overjoyed to just follow along. And yes, totally a magical city…we all kept joking around about the magic in the air…the lights and the water and the gondolas…they were good sports and humored me.
have to say, they were a great crew to travel with. They were really good about keeping an eye on me, but not overdoing it so that I felt like I was a pain at all. We finally made it in to Venice…and once again, I think God sent this group to me because there is absolutely NO WAY I would have found my way around Venice…I never would have made it to a hostel, or anywhere else. Venice is a group of 180 little islands and over 400 bridges…there aren’t any cars- the taxis are boats, and most of the streets don’t have names, they zig zag in and out of each other…it is a terribly ridiculous place to attempt to navigate. And you all know how directionally challenged I am in the first place…so I was overjoyed to just follow along. And yes, totally a magical city…we all kept joking around about the magic in the air…the lights and the water and the gondolas…they were good sports and humored me. We made it to the hostel…after a loooong bit of searching…seriously, it is ridiculous. Then we went out to dinner…we were all starving at this point (we hadn’t been able to eat during the travel because all of our train switches were really close together and we had to hustle to make the next train). So we stopped at a tourist trap and did one of the fixed menus…it wasn’t stellar, and was definitely overpriced….oh well. Then we went out for some gelato and then searched for some bars. Venice is a very early city…just about everything closes before 8pm. So on top of going in circles, hitting dead ends, and getting completely lost…there were only two choices for places to go out. We found one, sat at a table and had a few drinks…and then began another looong search for our hostel…we had to take a few potty breaks (aka, the guys peeing in corners), were close to tumbling into the water a couple times when the road just ended into the canal, narrowly escaped some vampires (magical city…dark characters…had to be vampires)…but we made it back and went to bed.
I was up early again, luckily breakfast was only served until 9, so the guys made themselves get up in time for breakfast. They decided they were going to catch the night train back to Germany, so checked out of the hostel…I was told there wasn’t any vacancy for that evening, so I needed to find another hostel to stay in. We left our luggage for the day locked up in the luggage room at the hostel. We did a lot of wandering around…both because that is what Venice is all about, and also because if you don’t have an actual destination, then you can’t be lost. We decided we needed to go for a gondola ride…they are pretty pricey, but if we split it between the four of us, it wasn’t so bad…and really, you have to do one in Venice. Def something I wouldn’t have been able to do if I was on my own. The guys had certain requirements for our gondola driver…he had to 
have the hat, and they really wanted him to sing…which, of course, none of them did…so one of the guys sang “when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore…“ so funny. The ride was definitely magical and o-so romantic…hehe. After that the guys spent some time searching for souvenirs…and they found a wine store that makes their own wine right there…and they just fill up huge 1.5 liter water bottles with the wine…for like 2.50. Yeah, so they each bought one and drank them down during dinner (again, so classy!) and then went for refills before the store closed. They figured they had an eight hour train ride ahead of them , and they might as well pass out and get some sleep.
have the hat, and they really wanted him to sing…which, of course, none of them did…so one of the guys sang “when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore…“ so funny. The ride was definitely magical and o-so romantic…hehe. After that the guys spent some time searching for souvenirs…and they found a wine store that makes their own wine right there…and they just fill up huge 1.5 liter water bottles with the wine…for like 2.50. Yeah, so they each bought one and drank them down during dinner (again, so classy!) and then went for refills before the store closed. They figured they had an eight hour train ride ahead of them , and they might as well pass out and get some sleep. After dinner, gelato, more wine…we sat in a little square and chatted for a bit, and then went back to the hostel for their luggage. And well, I hadn’t found another place to stay…we found a couple of other hostels during the day, but they were all full…and realistically, there was no way I would ever find my way back to any of them on my own anyway…I seriously still have no clue how to get around this city. It is ridiculous. Sooo, I waited for someone to come out of the hostel we were staying in, and just decided I would spend the night out in the common room. Everything is locked up, so it is perfectly safe…and it is in a church…I am sure they wouldn’t want to throw a poor girl out on the street with no where to stay, right?
So the guys took off and I was on my own for another day and a half. It was sad to have lost my company. I really enjoyed them…and am so so grateful they adopted me in their group for a couple of days…I love traveling on my own and being independent…but after a couple weeks of it, it was awesome to have some good people to hang out with. And I couldn’t have found a better group of guys to spend my time in a magical city with.
To add to the magic that is Venice, I woke up this morning...got all packed up to be ready to head to the airport, went out for a croissant and coffee...it was snowing!!! So exciting and pretty and def magical.
Now I am back in Paris...going to have some dinner and then get to bed so I am all ready for my flight back home tomorrow...how crazy!!
