Part V: Umbria

On New Years Eve we took a train and headed to the region of Umbria. We stayed in the town of Assisi while we were there. We tried to check into the hotel but it was too early in the day and they wouldn't let us. Luckily, they let us leave our big bags there. We got back on a train and went to the town of Todi.

Todi was the cutest little town and it is built up on a hill. It is surrounded by the greenest hills I have ever seen! It was great! Our main purpose of going there was to by some awesome authentic olive oil!! Unfortunately, we got there right around lunch, and being in Italy, all of the shops closed for about 2 hours or so. So we got to wander around a bit. We walked through the small cobble stone streets and found a park with an amazing view, it was so peaceful. Once the shops opened we went to find some olive oil. The first shop we found was perfect. The guy who owned it really knew what he was doing. The shop had been owned by his family for over 100 years! That definitely earned our trust. We bought some great olive from him. After that we came across another shop that was owned by a guy who made the olive oil personally!! We definitely bought some from him! It was amazing!!

We went to catch our train back to Assisi and ended missing our train!! We had to wait for 2 hours at the station for the next one. It was only the start to our night. We got back to Assisi and it was, obviously, later than we had planned on getting back. Due to it being a holiday, everything was closing, including all of the places that sold food. And all of the restaurants were either closed or packed full, we didn't know what to do and we were hungry. We walked down to the nearest McDonalds only to find that even that was closed. It was Jon's turn for a breakdown, it was a bad night. We finally found a little pastry and sandwich shop that was still open. We got a few sandwiches, some pastries, a couple of drinks, and after we were done eating, we got a few snacks to take back to the hotel. It wasn't the best food, but it was something. However, when we went to pay for it we were charged $60!! We couldn't believe it! We then went back to the hotel and played cards until midnight. All in all, probably one of the worst New Years celebrations ever. At least we were in Italy, that made up for it.

The next day we went up to the see the city of Orvieto where they have a really pretty cathedral! We had planned our day out perfectly so that we only had about 2 hours in order to catch certain trains so that we could get everywhere we wanted to go and get home. It wouldn't have been so bad, but it was a holiday so there were less trains. Orvieto was cute, another city up on a hill! It was gorgeous! After that we headed to the city of Perugia, a city that is famous for their chocolate. We had to hurry but we did find the main chocolate store there and bought some! It was cool. It was dark by then so we couldn't see much but it was a really pretty and clean city, I really liked it!

That was our last day in Umbria, we never actually had the time to go to the main city of Assisi, it just never worked out. It was okay though, we saw it from a distance. The next morning we took a train to head to a port so we get on a boat and head to our next location. While we were trying to get on the boat the outside rubber on both wheels of one of our suitcases got torn and we had to cut the rubber off, leaving just the plastic. Unfortunately, it was SUPER stormy that night! The boat was fairly small and it was so rocky that we couldn't even leave the room because it was too hard to walk around! Our bags were falling over and Jon almost fell out of the bunk bed. We were so sick, even with motion sickness pills. We couldn't even eat dinner because we were too sick! It was a terrible night!!! We couldn't even believe it! On top of it, the ride was a good 4 or 5 hours longer than it should have been. Yuck!




Umbria was amazingly gorgeous!!! For the most part it was really enjoyable!!!

p.s. If you click on the pictures they are better, really big, but they look better!

Part IV: Florence

I think that Florence was one of my favorite places in Italy! It is so beautiful and has some great things that are close by. It's a clean city, especially compared to others that we went to, like Naples. I really liked it. It rained most of the time we were there. But that's okay.

We didn't have any problems getting to Florence, which was a relief. On our first day there we checked into the hotel and then went to see the Duomo. It was a great cathedral! We got there just a little too late to be able to go to the top so we just wandered around Florence that night. We got to see the markets there, they have tons! It was great.

The next morning we got up early so we could go to Piazza Michelangelo while the sun was rising. We got there a little late, but it was pretty cloudy so there wasn't really much to see. The Piazza was AMAZING!! It sits on a big, beautiful, green hill that looks out over the city. The gardens around it were so pretty, even in the winter! Florence is such a pretty city!! The bridge that is in the Mona Lisa painting is in Florence and we walked across it! It was great! We got some gelato even though it was pretty cold! Then we went to see the David statue, it was always really cool to see all of the really famous things that you hear about all the time! Then we went back to the Duomo and climbed to the top, we climbed up a lot of tall things on our trip, it was pretty hard, I would not suggest it to someone who is really claustrophobic! It was such a great view though! Florence is SO pretty!!

After that we made our way to Pisa. It was kind of funny, it really wasn't a long trip. We got on a train, took a bus to the tower, saw the tower, got back on the bus, then on a train and we were back. The tower was really cool though! It was next to a really pretty cathedral and they were surrounded by a big stone wall and a big field of some of the greenest grass I have seen! It was fantastic!! Instead of taking the classic picture of holding up the tower, we decided to take pictures of all of the other people taking the picture, it was fun!!

The next day we went to Siena! I just adored Siena as well!!! We went to the Piazza Campo where they have a huge clock tower! It's also where they do the horse races that are so famous there (the same horse race that is at the beginning of Casino Royale... I'm pretty sure it's Casino Royale and not Quantum of Solace....oh well). It was really cool!! We went to the top of the tower there and I saw one of the most amazing views of our trip! Siena is surrounded by a stone wall and outside of it is hills and fields! It was SO green and so gorgeous I could barely believe it!! We were there in the morning and with the light fog and the city... it was honestly one of the most beautiful things I have even seen!! For a couple of minutes we were up there by ourselves, it was super romantic and special. After that we went to the Duomo there, it was really cool, part of it was striped with black and white stone, it was really cool looking!

And that was Florence, I kind of wish we would have had a little more time there! It was definitely one of my favorites!!

Part III: Bergamo

We stayed in Bergamo for 6 days and it was probably the slowest part of our trip. It was the most relaxing in some ways and the most stressful in others.

Unfortunately, sometime during our terrible couple of train rides trying to get to Bergamo, Jon got sick. Which really sucks for multiple reasons. 1) Being sick sucks in general. 2) He had just been sick the week before our trip and figured that it would at least assure he wouldn't get sick on our trip. 3) Jon really doesn't handle being sick very well.... boys.... hehe

Anyway, we got to our hotel room on day 2 and had a few hours to relax before Alberto's mom (Anna) picked us up to take us to see a little bit of Bergamo. We went up to this old city above Bergamo called Citta Alta (the high city).... not sure if that's the actual name or if that's just what they call it.... huh.. Anyways!! It was really cold but it was so cool to see all of the super old buildings, it was foggy that evening too so that looked super cool! Then she went and bought us italian hot chocolate, which ROCKED! It's a lot different from our hot chocolate. It's really thick and heavy, not as sweet but way chocolately! It's pretty much amazing! I couldn't even finish it!

The next night was Christmas Eve. We pretty much just relaxed most of the day, we went and looked around the town close to our hotel a little bit and that evening we met up with Alberto and Anna to have dinner and then we went to see a Christmas concert in the town. It was fun to listen to the music! On Christmas we left early in the afternoon to go over to that Pasta's house with Alberto and Anna. The Pasta family is a really prominent LDS family in Italy, they spoke english and were really nice! We spent Christmas with them. We ate so much food, it was amazing! We had so many things that Jon had made for me before and some things that he hadn't, it was an adventure. Later in the evening we watched as everyone opened presents. We even got a few from Alberto and Anna as well as from the Pasta family, it was a really sweet surprise. It was a great Christmas, it was a really interesting thing to see how people celebrate it in another country.

The next day was really busy. Alberto and Anna drove around to see all sorts of wonderful things! We went to this really cute little city called Sirmione. It was such a fun little city! I just adored it! They had this old castle that was just standing there in the city. We got to go up and look around it, it was really cool. Then we walked around the city and saw lots of gardens and cute little houses. The city is surrounded by a big lake on both sides and it was so gorgeous! Picture perfect, and I took a lot of pictures! It was fantastic. Then we went to the city of Verona, which is where the story of Romeo and Juliet takes place. While we were there we found out that Romeo and Juliet is actually based on a true story, that was cool. We went and saw Juliet's balcony! It was really fun!

After that we went to another city, no idea of the name of it, to see a live Nativity scene! It was one of the greatest things I have ever seen! In the city is a big hill that is owned by some rich guy who sets this up every year. They only do it for 6 days out of the year, it is amazing. They have volunteer actors who come to act as though they live in the city. It felt like we were really walking through Bethlehem back during the time when Christ was born. The first part was filled with Romans and the people who were rich and well off, then we moved into the small part of town where we actually watch people make things like candles, dolls, shawls, quilts, weapons, cups, plates, food, flour, spin wool, spin silk, just all sorts of things and they were really making them, not just pretending! And on top of it, everything was powered by water wheels that went down the hill!! It was really amazing, and they had light music playing. It was so beautiful. And at the end they had Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, it was special!!

On our last day there it was Sunday so we went to church. It was really intimidating for me since I don't speak Italian but it turned out to be really nice, I really enjoyed it! That night we went to Milan and saw the Duomo (a Duomo is the main church in each city), it was one of the most amazing cathedrals that we saw on our trip!! We also saw an old castle and the galleries where they have all of the really famous expensive stores! It was really fun!

We really enjoyed our time in Bergamo. Jon was sick through the whole thing, which was hard but he hid it really well while we were around our hosts. We ate tons of fantastic italian food which Anna made us!! I learned a few italian words and phrases and really grew in my desire to learn italian! It was fantastic!

Part II- Paris

Due to us missing our initial flight from New York, we arrived in Paris later than we had expected to. We got to our hotel which is on one of the streets that lines the sides of the Louvre Museum! It was also right next to the metro station, which rocked!

We didn't love the hotel the stayed in and we ended up spending $60 on breakfast at the hotel because they didn't tell us that is was not complimentary before we ate!! That sucked!

Paris was nice! It snowed a lot while we were there so it was cold but it was really romantic too. We didn't do much the first night, just wandered around a little bit. The next day we went to the Louvre. It is such a big museum! It's crazy! We were only there for a few hours but you really need days to see and appreciate everything! It was fun! We went to see Notre Dame. We wanted to go up to the top but they were closed because of the snow. The cathedral was so nice though!

After that we went up to see the Sacre Coeur Cathedral. It's my favorite one in Paris! It's up on the hilltop and overlooks the whole city. It's so pretty and super white, it's gorgeous!!! Jon really liked it too which made me really happy!! That night we walked down the Champs Elysees. It was all lit up with Christmas lights and had a bunch of stands set up just for Christmas! It was great!

The next day we went to Versailles. It is so cool to walk around places where you can see what it was like back when it was actually inhabited. We really wanted to see the gardens but, guess what, they were closed because of the snow. It was sad. Then we went and saw the Pompidou! It is such a cool building. We didn't do anything there, just went up to the top of it. It had an amazing view of the city!!! Even better than the Sacre Coeur because it wasn't as far away! Way cool!

Then we went to see the Eiffel Tower! They were celebrating it's 120th anniversary so they had a light show on the tower every night from October til December. We really got lucky to see it! It was way cool!!! We wanted to go to the top, but again, guess what, it was closed because of the snow! Lol! We could have gone up to the 1st out of the 3 levels but it was really cold and we decided that it really wasn't worth the money. As we were leaving we saw Remy from the movie Ratatouille! We heard a rustling by the trash can and we turned to watch this rat chew through the bag and through some tin foil to get inside the bag. It was pretty funny!!

We were supposed the leave the next afternoon, but we found out the light before that they were shutting down the Chunnel (the tunnel that goes between France and London) because of the weather. We couldn't get any info online so we went to the train station the next day. Sure enough they had cancelled all of the trains leaving that day. So we stood in line at the ticket counter to see what we could do. We were at the train station for hours when we finally left. We had to skip going to London all together and we got the last 2 tickets heading for Milan the next day. We had to stay in Paris one more night. We had a hard time sleeping that night and got up the next morning and went to a different train station to catch our train.

We had to wait in the cold for another couple of hours because, due to the weather, our train was late. We got on the train and our seats weren't together. It turned out to be okay and we still got to sit together but it was a really long, uncomfortable train ride. It was cool to pass through the mountains into Italy though, Jon really enjoyed that. We found out later that we had been really lucky. After we left they shut down both of the train stations for the rest of the day.

Once we got to Milan we had to wait for our train that went to Bergamo, which is where we would be staying for the next 6 days. That train was really late too and it was freezing. During that ride we had to stand for the whole way. We finally got to Bergamo and Jon's friend and old companion, Alberto, and his mom picked us up. I was really surprised that they weren't late. They took us to the mall so we could have pizza for dinner there. On the way there we had to get out of the car twice to push other cars so that they wouldn't hit us getting on the freeway. It was really snowy and bad. When we got there we found that they were closing all of the shops earlier than normal because hardly anyone was there due to the weather. We ended up having no other choice but to eat at McDonalds that night. I really hate McDonalds in the first place, and it was better there, but not by much. So my first meal in Italy was not so good.

The hotel that we were going to stay at wouldn't let us come a night earlier so we had to stay at one of Alberto's friends house. They were really nice to let us stay there. We ended up sleeping on bunk beds. That was when I had my breakdown. It had really been a terrible couple of days and I couldn't hold it in anymore. I just cried. Jon snuggled me and loved me and I quickly felt better.

More to come soon, keep your eyes open for part 3!