The morning after we arrived home from Sicily was the beginning of our spring break! It was also the day I got to see my brother and sister!! After some confusion, I was able to meet up with them on the Tiber island bridge. It was so good to them! After showing them around my apartment and getting some pizza at Pizza Florida, they came back to my apartment while I packed for our adventure and waited for Ian’s luggage to arrive. We were told that it would be dropped off between 1 and 2am, so my sister and I stayed awake waiting, but it never showed up. Lucky Ian! He got to travel for 4 days with the same clothes and everything he came in.
With no sleep, we made our way to the train station to catch a taxi to head to the airport at 4:00 am! We finally were in the air and on our way around 6 am and landed in Milan around 8 am. Because we flew with Ryanair, the airport we flew into was a ways out of the city, so we had to take a 45 minute bus ride to the Milan train station. We then made our way to the Duomo, and after getting lost a couple times, stopping a few shops, and hoping on a metro we finally made it! We climbed to the top and were able to look out over all of Milan. We sat on the roof and soaked up the sun and ate our lunches.
The Duomo
The Duomo through Ian's sunglasses
It was getting close to the time we needed to check into our hostel (we were told that we had a 3 hour grace period to check in from the time we told them we would arrive). After walking for what seemed like 7 hours and waiting outside for someone to answer the door, we found out that the lady in charge was not there and we had to check in through a different hotel. We were then informed that we were late and missed our check in time and had to make a new reservation that we would have to pay for. We explained to her what the email said and told her that we were actually right on time to check in. The lady also took down our passport information (which is normal for most hostels). We weren’t getting anywhere with our arguing but after some time and clarification we paid the money and were shown our room. The room had 3 small twin size beds and a dresser. There was a communal area and bathroom down the hall. The lady then started explaining to us that she wasn’t going to give us a key because they only had one key and the ‘other’ people needed it. This was when we started to get nervous that this was a scam. We told her we weren’t going to stay here unless we had our own key. She then began to tell us that we could leave our bags here and wait until the lady who owned the hostel to come back. After she left, and many phone conversations to ‘Sarah’ the land lord, we decided that we weren’t going to stay here. We asked if we could cancel our reservation, get our money back and leave. She first said yes and that we would get our money back and my credit card would not be charged, then after a call to ‘Sarah’ she told us that we wouldn’t get any money back. This bickering went back and forth for a good 45 minutes. I was starting to feel that someone was going to come in a pick us off. She kept telling us that we could leave our bags in the lobby or in our room and come back “later” and get the key. The whole situation was shady, and we wanted to leave immediately, but they had all of our passport information and my credit card information so we had to make sure they wouldn’t charge me and they would rip up our information. After a hour and half, we got them to agree to not charge my credit card, got our money back and ripped up our passport slips. We then booked it of the area and jumped on a bus back to the center of the city.
We were all a little shaken up by this situation, so we started walking around the city trying find somewhere to stay. We came across hotels that would cost us 130 Euros, 250 Euros and 175 Euros. I guess Milan isn’t the best place to be stranded with no place to stay. Good thing Lindsay had a calling card so we could call home and my mom was able to call the hostel we had booked for Venice and they had an opening for the night and would cost us 75 euro more than we already owed them, but we weren’t going to stay a minute longer in Milan than we had to. We then booked it to the train station, but stopping to buy a pair of tennis shoes of course, one of the only good things to come out of Milan on this trip.
When at the train station, we bought our tickets (which were half the price we thought they would be!) and then waited until it was time to board. Before boarding, you are supposed to validate your ticket, but to our luck, the machine was broken. We boarded in fear that we would miss the train, and hoped we wouldn’t get caught without a validated ticket and be charged the 100 Euro fine. The way this trip was going, I wouldn’t have been surprised if this happened.
Our train ended up being an hour late getting into Venice, but it wasn’t that much of a hassle. We had to take a water bus to the canal our hostel was on. What a change from Milan! The guy running the hostel was super nice and accommodating. He gave us a free map and ideas of what to see and tips for traveling around the island and where to eat. I knew from then on that Venice was going to be a great place. And I was right! It ended up being my favorite place that I had been to yet.
Venice!
We were all pretty exhausted from the adventures of the day and we crashed around 10pm and didn’t wake up until around 10 am. That day we walked around to all the different piazza’s and squares on the main island. It was pretty cold and foggy, but we still had a good time. Lindsay and Ian had their first taste of Italian Gelato and coffee, both where a huge hit with them! That night we ate at one of the recommended restaurants called Pizza Ochre. It was pretty good. Ian got pizza with an over easy egg on it and Lindsay had pasta with a full prawn on top, eyes and all! It was a pretty low key night with Lindsay and Ian trying to adjust to the jetlag and all the craziness of this adventure and we hit the sack pretty early again.
Rialto Bridge
I absolutely loved seeing (and photographing) all the different boats!
The masks seen here were absolutely amazing! So intricate and full of emotion.
On Tuesday, March 16th, we visited Murano and Burano islands. These places were by far my favorite places to see. It is amazing to see what can be done with glass. We spent the day walking around the islands and buying gifts for ourselves and friends. It was a relaxing, but fun and exciting day. It is interesting to see how this city operates solely on boat transportation and walking. What a concept! I really enjoyed just walking around and getting lost amongst the many canals and alleys. We wore holes in our map from getting lost and turned around so much!
Burano- amazing
Murano Canals
Gondolas- The famous form of transportation around the canals
The next day we walked toward the University of Venice and went to the bus station to take us to the airport. We didn’t know what else to do in Venice because we thought we had seen everything we could and we all were running low on energy and money at this point, so we went to the airport and hung out there for a couple hours. Our flight home was nice and smooth and we got a cab ride back to Rome, which was an interesting experience for Ian and Lindsay. They were amazed that the drivers read the map and yellow pages AS they drove instead of figuring out where they were going before we left. When we got back we met up with my parents! It was SO nice to see them; I had missed them a lot. That night we had a nice dinner in the Jewish Ghetto and also had some gelato nearby where my family was staying. The next post will be about my visit with my family, which was too short in my opinion!
Sunset from a Ryanair flight
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