Italy in a Nutshell.

After finishing finals last Monday in Málaga, Shelly and I finished packing up all of our stuff, said good-bye to Puri (That was the literal worst. I was blessed with the best host mom.), and headed to the airport to fly to Bologna, Italy!

Sidenote: I will never again fly with RyanAir. 

 I don't even want to talk about how much I paid for my overweight bag.

I should have just started throwing clothes away...

Bologna:

All we did was sleep and catch a train out of there.

Moving on.

Florence:

We had one full day in Florence and we saw A LOT!

We climbed to the top of the Campanile bell tower (413 steps!) which offered beautiful view of the city and the famous Duomo. 

The day before we saw the inside of the Duomo cathedral while trying to hide from the rain.

We saw Michelangelo's David, but we couldn't take pictures in the museum, so this is one of the copies. In this picture, we are trying to look into his eyes because our dear guide, Rick Steves, told us "When you look into the eyes of Michelangelo's magnificent sculpture of David, you're looking into the eyes of Renaissance Man."

Well said, Rick. Well said.

We wandered through the Central Market. 

"A wonderland of picturesque produce" - Rick

Check out this meat. I don't even want to know what some of this is...

The thing in the middle looks like a head...

And to the left...I would venture to guess stomach.

YUM.

The Ponte Vecchio bridge in the background.

It's really unique with shops (only jewelry shops) built into the walls.

We walked up to Piazzale Michelangelo for a "superb view of Florence" -Rick

(Man, Rick is really killing it today.)

Taking after my Dad, I had to find a Diet Coke on the way back down...

And by Diet Coke, I mean Coca-Cola Light. They can't even pretend to be the same thing.

I can't forget about the food.

We had amazing pizza for lunch. I really didn't think pizza in Italy could be THAT extraordinary. I mean, it's just pizza. But it was amazing. We also followed Rick's suggestions to a great gelato place. Loved it, but it doesn't compare to what we found in Rome!

Pisa:

Thursday we took the train to Pisa.

Just a day trip because all we cared about seeing was the Leaning Tower and taking a picture "holding it up". It was totally worth it!

Check it out! 

I am thoroughly impressed with this picture. 

Much better than Dad and my attempt to hold up the Eiffel Tower in Paris (see here).

I was not let down by the size of anything in Italy.

This tower really is huge and it really is leaning.

The weather was perfect and we enjoyed lunch on the lawn!

And then we laughed at the millions of other tourists taking pictures holding up the tower.

And then we hopped another train to Rome!

Every time we went through a tunnel, my ears threatened to implode.

I felt I needed to include that...

Rome:

Friday we toured the Vatican.

There were a million people, so it was a slow shuffle through the hallways.

We saw a lot of artwork. I wish I understood some of it more.

The Sistine Chapel made it all worth it.

I wish I could have spent more time in there, without so many other people, and had someone explain to me all of the amazing scenes on the walls. There are so many Biblical depictions, and I could only catch onto a handful of them.

We also saw St. Peter's Basilica.

Though it was just another church, it was fascinating and huge!

That night, we took Rick Steves "Night Walk Across Rome".

(How does anyone travel without Rick? He should pay me for all this promotion.)

It was my favorite part of our time there. 

Everything was less crowed and prettier at night!

The Trevi Fountain was amazing.

The only disappointment was that I expected some famous Italian singer to mistake me for his singing partner, show me Rome on the back of his moto, and convince me to perform in the Italian music awards with him.

Thanks a lot, Lizzie.

Rick told us about Rome's most famous gelato place.

It was the best. Not even kidding. Nothing compares.

Just ask Shelly. 

Saturday was the Colosseum!

Rick gave us all the information we needed.

It was kind of like bull-fights.

Gladiators fought to the death with other people or animals.
Sometimes the loser was allowed to live, but the big guy had to approve it (like the bull), otherwise they were executed (like the bull.)

By Sunday, we were exhausted.

We didn't want to be tourists anymore. 

So we went to the zoo. In the rain.

We had a great time!

And then went back to our room and watched a movie.

Not your average last day in Rome, but it was perfect.