When it was impossible for my children to travel with me, how I wished any of my lady friends could join me for the Italy trip. Well, nobody could afford the vacation except me. So I accepted the fact that I had to travel alone again. This small disappointment didn’t diminish my spirit at all, in stead I looked positively at the bright side and believe I would learn how to adjust myself to the upcoming adventure. Helen Keller said, "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." I did always enjoy my life more when embracing adventures. It took me days to decide what to bring and finally had my luggage packed right before I left home for the Airport.
To save money I always take bus to the Airport. Unexpectedly when I arrived at the station,a taxi driver approached me eagerly to offer an extremely reasonable price to the Airport as he had to go to the Airport to pick up a customer with or without passengers riding along. At first I hesitated a while for safety sake. You know the result. I arrived at the Airport much earlier than I planned. Not bad, indeed.
When I found our guide, I saw all young people around her. Most of them even look like students. Well people tend to look young nowadays, I thought. Still felt a little bit awkward being the oldest one. I was much relieved later when seeing two more couples joining in. They were definitely about my age, or maybe older? Before boarding the plane, I even got the chance to use the Airport computer to write a long mail to my friend. I hadn’t talked to the tour members.
“What’s the hurry? The trip hasn’t started yet,” I said to myself. The fact is that I am shy and introvert deep down not like when I am with my lady friends at all. After we arrived in Rome and went to have our first meal, I knew it was time to get to know my tour members. I did alright I learned that we are thirty people in total including 8 couples; two brought their children with, two probably just got married, two old couples, two advanced their honeymoon according to our guide; two college students, two working girls, two bankers. They all came with their friends or family. What I didn’t expect was that there are ten teachers. It surprised me yet was quite understandable as summer vacation is the only available time for teachers to travel.
The whole trip in Italy was done by bus and on foot. We walked a lot and when we arrived at the hotel, we were quite exhausted, yet still looked pretty OK. Pretty healthy people we were. The three small children just graduated from the elementary school had huge crush on me. One even tailed me wherever I went for the last five days and practically became my camera boy. Very interesting! Everyone was nice and friendly to be with chatting and helping me take photos. Of course I also volunteered to help them take photos when seeing the need in return. The whole trip was sensational. No modern buildings in the places we went, so full of cultural, religious and artistic features. Now I realize how Italy can get by without much industry. Tourism is the most important industry they have. Tourists were all over the places we went even on week days. Hardly saw Italians except the shop keepers. Also according to our guide, most Italian went on vacation, too. Of course they went to other countries or some resorts.
I was amazed by the big number of churches, houses and buildings in unity and how well the cities were preserved with old stone houses
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The whole trip was exciting. I had a very fulfilling nine days excluding the long tiring hours on the plane. Let me minute it following our itinerary. The places we visited were:
Rome: We spent two whole days to see all the churches and religious spots covered by the book "Angels and Demons" like St Peter's Church including the Sistine chapel, Vantican Museum, Piazza San Pietro, Piazza Navona, Sanda Maria della Vittoria, Maria del Popolo, Castello de Sant Angelo, Colosseum, Pantheon, Fontana di Trevi, Piazza Venezia, Spanish steps,聖三一教堂(Trinita dei Monti), etc. So many churches, sculptures, art works, monuments and relics. Vantican is the smallest country in the world with total area 0.44 Km2 only.
Siena in Toscana: After two exhausting days in Rome, we got to sleep in a little bit. It's almost noon time when we arrived. Spent one whole day strolling in the small city seeing churches, shops, Piazza del Campo and costumes of old time nobles. There was a special festival on that day and men in costumes were supposed to perform the fighting with each other. Pity that we had to leave by 5:30 pm, and had to miss it.
Florence: More sculptures and churches, the biggest Santa Maria del Fiore, also the famous Statue "David" are in the plaza and the museum. The genuine Statue David is in the Gallery of UFFIZI 烏菲茲美術管. I climbed all the way up to the top of the church and looked around all the churches in the city. More introduction of the structure of the churches, bridges and buildings was given. There is a street full of shops that sell jewelry in gold, platinum and K gold interesting but too expensive comparing with the jewelry in Taiwan. We also saw the house of the famous poet Dante Alighieri 但丁.
Pisa Tower: The tower is much smaller than I thought. And its shape is no longer natural and beautiful according to our guide. What a pity! Being disappointed that we couldn’t get up there, we took a lot of photos around the tower. Another special feature was that there were a lot of African venders there selling faked bags and handicrafts.
Venice: Took boat three times to see the islands and alleys of the famous and beautiful city of water. There are 150 channels and over 400 bridges. We also visited the crystal factory. Many show rooms exhibit beautiful chandelier, mirrors, tea sets, vases, and decorations that seem so delicate and exquisite, yet truly artistic. Some of our members spent quite some money there. Luckily I didn't lose my sense as this trip already robbed me up. This is the place we had truly scrumptious spaghetti, too. I like the city very much and wish I could spend a few more days there having a boat of my own to immerse myself in the cool, classic, exortic and slow-paced city.
Verona: the place of the famous tear jerky story "Romeo and Juliet" took place. We saw Romeo (we were told it is made believe) and Juliet’s home. The beautiful bronze statue of Juliet attracted every tourist to take picture with her. People were encouraged to touch its breast. Most men did, but not women.
Sirmione: See the beautiful lake Lago di Garda and the Scaligar Castle. I didn't go in because already spent a lot on the tickets during the 1st few days, just spent the whole time walking on the streets, the shore, and eating fruit and ice cream. Quite a small beautiful city and resort for Italians.
Milan: The last stop. After seeing so many churches and sculptures, became less crazy about going up to the top of the tower to save 9 Euro. With limited short time, I managed to take a good look of the church inside and work the streets around it. Most tour members aimed at shopping at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele 艾曼紐迴廊.
The Hotels we stayed in were quite nice, too, providing good breakfast. The only downside was the high exchange rate of Euro which makes everything so expensive. Just post cards, snacks and souvenirs cost me a fortune. Susan Heller said, ‘"When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money." How true it is!
How I wished I had more money to spend so that I could have had a complete worry-free trip in Italy.
Trini
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