Monday, February 23, 2015

Italy Adventures: Venice

For our final stop in Italy, we spent a few days in Venice. Naturally, I had to take just a few shots of the hostel we stayed in,  the Generator, because it gave off some serious hipster vibes and just begged to be photographed. The Generator is actually a chain of boutique hostels around Europe, with branches in Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Dublin, Hamburg, London and Paris, and two more coming soon to Rome and Amsterdam! Pretty cool. At times it definitely felt more like a hotel, and I would stay in one of their hostels again; it was very convenient and comfortable. The one inconvenient part, however, was the fact that it's not located on the main island in Venice, meaning that we had to take the boat each day. Normally that wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but I will admit that the seriously cold, windy and sometimes rainy weather did deter us from going out some nights, and the prices for the boat transportation were pretty bloody expensive.
We made a quick stop into yet another church...tired of the church pictures yet?
The cool thing about St. Giorgio's church is that we could go up to the top of the bell tower for a view of the city. We weren't blessed with the beautiful, sunny weather that we were in some other cities, but the view was still lovely.
We also went for a little wander around the Doge's Palace.
I found the documents to be some of the most beautiful things in the whole palace.
Somehow when I go into historical places like this, I find myself as interested, if not more interested, in the textiles of the building interior than the actual historical artifacts themselves.

And so we come to the end of our Italy Adventure. I had a really fantastic time with WAY too much pizza, pasta, pastries and coffee. It feels good to be back in Munich, even just for about a week. It really does almost feel like coming back home! Next we're off to London, Liverpool, Belfast, Galway, Dublin, Edinburgh and Glasgow....if we don't change our plans again. I hope it's been interested to come along on this journey with me, and hopefully I'll have much more to share in the next few weeks!!
SHARE:

Friday, February 20, 2015

Italy Adventures: Florence

Last minute, we decided to end our Italy Adventure with two quick trips to Florence and Venice before heading back to Munich for a week and then to U.K. for about a month or so. We only had a little less than 3 days in Florence, but it really is as beautiful as they say.

We began our first day with a visit to the famous Duomo. As beautiful as the outside is, I'm a little sad to say that the only thing in the interior of the gothic church that caught my interest enough for a photo was the floor. All in all though, it truly is a gorgeous piece of architecture.


Look who found a carousel! Look who took a ride on it! (...it was me).
 Basilica of Santa Croce.
Dante looking moody. What else is new?
Iced cappucinos; obvisouly on the menu purely for the American crowd. They were pretty tasty though!
The gelato in Florence has been, in our experience, the best so far. Coconut gelato? (where are the emojis on this website?! insert drooling face here)
Scooters upon scooters upon scooters. I want one.

Included in the price of our museum ticket was a visit to the Boboli Garden, which I spent quiet a while in, just enjoying the feel of sun on my skin again, and soaking it in before going back to Munich next week.
There were little hidden pathways all over the place and I later discovered that I missed a HUGE chunk of the gardens simply because I chose to turn right instead of left. How convenient it would have been, to look at a map before visiting the garden, instead of after.

I also meandered through the Costume Museum which was really interesting. It featured important women in Italian fashion spanning from the 1700s to current day. I especially liked the collection of wedding dresses from diffferent eras.
Towards the end of the day we met up with a friend of Elizabeth's who was visiting Florence and we made another climb to yet another vantage point, Piazzala Michelangelo, which is known to have the best views of Florence. And it does.
We went just before sunset, so of course I couldn't not take a new picture every few minutes as the sun continued to go further and further down.
We stopped at All'Antico Vinaio for some of their famous paninis. Yes, they were about the size of our faces, if not bigger--I don't think the picture actually does them justice. But they were so worth every bite; I got one with prosciutto, arugula and truffle sauce. YES. Just yes.
Everytime I've ever heard someone talk about Florence, it's always been about how beautiful of a city it is. And really...by the end of our 3 short days in Firenze, as it's called in Italian, it pretty much stole my heart. I know I'll be back at some point.

SHARE:
Blogger Templates by pipdig