Saturday Mar
ch 12 2011 and Sunday March 13 2011 Day 1 & 2Bought my flight through Brittish Airways and had to be at Newark Airport 4:00 Pm since the flight departed at 6:50 PM with destination to London, UK and with a final destination to Pisa, Italy. The trip wasn't that bad at least for me, I hadn't slept the whole night before and slept thewhole trip. While at London we walked around a bit and ate breakfast, but here is my warning Brittish pound and Euros are worth a lot more than the dollar and can hurt your pocket.
Around 2:00 PM we arrived at Pisa and took a train to get to Florence. It wasn't bad at all Hotel La Residenzia (Hotel Residence) was very comfortable. My roomate for the remainder of the trip was Andres Guerrero, friend and partner in crime. Most of those traveling with me weretired and were ready to hit the bed to be ready for the next day, but not me I was anxious to go discover the city of Florence. What better way to begin than at night with the nightlife in full effect. We slept for a couple of hours and hit the street at night.
What I did was go out with my roomate Andre and a friend Javier Olaya everyone else went to bed. What I quickly found out was how much of a tourist area Florence is. Every other person was American or a foreigner. We ended up in Piazza de la Republica (Plaza of the Republic) at a bar/restaurant called American Restaurant and there was music, drinks and a good time. That night we met another group and hung out with them before ending the night back at Hotel La Residenzia.
Monday March 14, 2011
Monday was our first official day in Florence. We normally woke up 9:30 to 10:00 Am so that we could eat the hotel co
mplimentary breakfast. Once after that we had some time to e
xplore the 
city by ourselves, most of us usually went shopping. At 3:00 PM this day we had to meet withthe ISA coordinat
Signoria, Medici palace. All were wonderful and beautiful sites to see. Florence is a tourist destination this will make the stay a little easier. The night ended with a couple of us from the group decided to enjoy he nightlife a
a club Twice and I must say clubs in Italy areway better than here in NewJersey. They are very similar to New York in the sense that they stay open until 5 am the earliest.Tuesday March 15, 2011
Every day was the complimentary breakfast was at 10 am and at least in Hotel Residenzia it was not good. So most of us opted to skip breakfast and just eat lunch at a
local restaurant. The food was very good. Italians eat a lot of pasta and meals with cheese. That day I ate the most delicious pasta I ever tasted.
Later in the day we met up with
the ISA professors and they took us to some historic parts of Florence. We went to the Medici palace. This is were the M
edici a very influential family in Florence lived. Unfortunately they
did
not allow pictures in the palace because from the to
ur guide told us forgeries can be made with pictures taken. I can tell you that the palace was beautiful it had its own Chapel inside, and it goes to s
how how powerful this family was that they had melted down gold used in the paintings.
Wednesday March 16, 2011
Wednesday was a very laid back day for my roomate and myself. The plan was to go to Sienna to a Winery wher
e we would get to see how wine is made and we would be allowed to do some wine testing. I didn't go to this trip but I did enjoy Florence, at the beginning of the trip we were issued museum
card that we could use to get into cer
tain museums for free. All the other students told me how muc
h fun they had. Some even came back with souvenirs and wine bottles. Overall th
e day was fun once the
rest of the group
came back, we went to eat at a
Restaurant in Piazza de la Republica.
Thursday March 17, 2011
Thursday was a very hot day compared to other days. It was around 70 degrees compared to the low 60's rainy days. On this day we met up with ISA again and they took us to EL DOMO, that is the dome one of
the biggest churches
in the world. I went inside and saw how magnificent of a structure it is. The cool thing about the Dome is that it has 500 stairs to reach th
e top. I can say that it was a challenge but at the same time it was a lot of fun. As a group we all got to the top and got to see Florence from the top of the Dome. After that most of the group split up some of us went shopping for souvenirs. It was a pretty good day. At night we decided to go out for a little since there was a festival going on because it was an Italian National holiday, but we had to be up really early because we were going to ROME (Where I wanted to go from the beginning).
Friday March 18, 2011
Friday finally arrived and we were off to ROME. The place for warriors and gladiators. I've always wanted to go to Rome because it is a City rich with history. I fulfilled of going to one of my dream destinations, I finally got to see the Colosseum. Another great place that I went was Vatican City. I was able to go to St Peter's Square and go into St Peter's Basilica. It was breathtaking to be in the same church where the Pope gives his mass. I also found it very beautiful inside, the Vatican definitely had the best sculptures and artist working on this basically because the moment you step in you feel amazed at the beauty of all the paintings, sculptures, and architecture. With the group we also decide to go to Fountain of Trevi, its a big fountain with amazing sculptures around it. The day ended with us returning to Florence around 7, most of the other students went tired but some of us decided to stay out and enjoy the night. Then again it was our last night in Italy and I was going to make sure I enjoyed it.
Saturday March 19, 2011- Chao Italia
The last day arrived too quick and before you realize it were packing our bags getting ready to go back to the USA, but there was one last pit stop that we had to do and it was in Pisa. Pisa was a great stop. I got to see the Leaning tower and its a sight to see. The only thing that was really annoying was the vendors in the street that ambushed you with the products they wanted to sell every chance that they got. We made it to Pisa airport right on time for the Flight.
It was a beautiful trip and made a bond with some great people!!!
It was a beautiful trip and made a bond with some great people!!!
Travel Learn: Italy 2011 Video
Italy Movie:
Angels and Demons
Angels and Demons starring Tom Hanks was based mostly in Rome and the Vatican City. The movie showed the chapels of Vatican City and I was at the main one Saint Peters Basilica. I have attached short trailer to show the caparisons with my video above.
