“Europeans, like some Americans, drive on the right side of the road, except in England, where they drive on both sides of the road; Italy, where they drive on the sidewalk; and France, where if necessary they will follow you right into the hotel lobby.”
I love Italy. End of story.
The girls and I embarked on our fist multi-country voyage to Italy and Switzerland.
It got off to a rough start.
My bags were packed, I was ready. My alarm had chimed at exactly 4:30am, and I hopped out of bed, ready to trek to the train station to make our 6 am train to Florence via Marseille, Nice and Milan.
As I made my way through the winding grey streets to Sarah and Nikki's house, I peered up to their window, and all the lights in their 3rd floor apartment were off.
Not a good sign.
I rang their New York City style buzzer over and over again in the cold dark street where they live, but to no avail.
Luckily when I finally resort to calling, Nikki groggily answers, and they have missed their alarm.
Cool.
20 frazzled minutes later, we are on our way to the train station.
FLORENCE:
12 hours and a missed train in Milan later, we arrived in Florence, where were met by Nikki's gracious friend, who is also studying through our program, and has agreed to let us crash for the weekend.
We had a personal tour guide, and three glorious days to spend in the city of art and culture.
I am proud to say I didn't waste a moment in Florence.
We went to the market, saw Michealangelo's David, walked the Ponte Vecchico up and down numerous times, and had a real Italian dinner on the Arno River by candle light.
I even paid 6 euro's for mint chocolate gelato.. oops.
My favorite part about Florence is how open and airy it feels. The buildings in Aix are so tall and close together that you rarely see the sky from day to day.
Sarah and I visited the museum which houses Michealangelo's David, and saw the man made of stone himself. We even took pictures, which is SO not allowed.
VENICE:
The city of waterways and gondola men was very, very good to us. Our hotel was on the ritzy, star-studded island of Lido, and was absolutely gorgeous with its palm trees and beaches. We were told it was a popular destination for celebrities and executives seeking quiet luxurious getaways.
The "buses" in Venice are actual boats, which take passengers from point to point in the city, along the border of the islands.
We spent our days trekking around the city, wandering in shops like Gucci and Prada, and crossing over bridges with men in striped shirts pushing their velvet lined canoe-like gondola's.
We even hit up a cemetery, which is its own island, it was gorgeous.
Our dinners were spent in teeny tiny family owned restaurants where the woman who took our orders also made our food...they were decorated with greens and blues and reds, and overlooked the waterways in all cases. It was a perfect Venecian vacation.
GENEVA:
It was after midnight when we arrived in the Geneva train station, and we were exhausted.
Our crossover of the Swiss border was uneventful, but we needed a taxi to take us over the border into France, where our hostel was.
We climbed into the taxi, and headed for what we thought was the name of our hostel, Port de Geneve.
Turns out, Port de Geneve is the name of an entire town.
Oops.
We were four stranded English speaking American girls, in the middle of the night, with over 80 lbs of luggage between us, at the wrong hotel.
Left without many options, we booked a night at the hotel we were dropped off at, and took to our much needed slumber.
The next day dawned rainy and cloudy, with mists not unlike San Francisco.
I asked the nice receptionist how to get into the city.
She promptly replied that it was about a 30 minute walk to the border, then we could take the tram into the city.
30 minutes to the border?! Where were we?
We began the walk to the border, with huge beautiful green and brown tree lined mountains at our backs.
3 hours and 100 swiss francs exchanged later, we were getting off a tram to start sight-seeing, and I turned around to see a very familiar green sign.
Tears filled my eyes and I realized it was a Starbucks, a piece of home 5000 miles away from home.
Literal tears.
I had no idea seeing that green Sirens Eye ( the name of the mermaid woman in the Starbucks sign) would wash such feelings of familiarity and homey-ness over me.
We had to go in. Maybe spend hours there.
The minute I walked in it was like I was anywhere but in Switzerland, except it was $7.95 for a Caramel Macchiato.
The next two days were among my favorites of the trip. We visited the UN Headquarters, and saw the Red Cross Museum.
Geneva also has an amazing lake smack dab in the middle of the city. It was such a wonderful trip!
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