The best thing about spring break in Europe is that you have what seems like endless options. Sure, you can head to Greece and do the whole beach resort thing, but I choose to pass on that this year, opting instead for ten days in Italy.
If you haven’t had the chance to travel to Italy yet, go. No, seriously, go and book your ticket right now. If there is one country that no one should be allowed to miss out on, Italy would have to be it. Between the beautiful weather (for the most part), the amazing food and the countless breathtaking sights, there is little more one could ask for.
My two friends and I started off in Rome, where we somehow miraculously managed to avoid the infamously long lines at St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican Museums, the Colosseum, you name it. Still, I would have waited a lot longer than we did to see all of these places.
I had always heard about how gigantic St. Peter’s is, but even when you’re there, until you go up to the dome and stare down at the minuscule people below, it is hard to grasp the sheer size of the place. As incredible as it was to see the Sistine Chapel and all the masterpieces at the Vatican Museum, I think my favorite site was probably the Spanish Steps, where hundreds of people just sit to talk, take in the sunshine, and people watch. Also, the best pizza that we found in Italy is from a small shop right outside the Metro stop to the Spanish Steps.
Our next stop was Venice, which turned out to be my favorite Italian city. Before I left for spring break, a friend advised me that as soon as you get to Venice, throw away your map, and just wander, which is exactly what we did. Each turn of the corner exposes another quaint square or bridge overlooking a canal, and well, let’s just say my camera put in a hard day’s work. Speaking of cameras, we asked someone to take our picture, and ended up spending the rest of the day with these students from Paris, wandering through Venice.
After Venice, we headed to Florence, where we hit some rainy weather, which made it a little harder to really get to know the city. Still, we did have a little bit of sun, enough for me to be able to tell that in good weather, Florence is beautiful. The Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore is one of the most memorable, if somewhat lesser known, images of Europe. However, on the second day, the lines that we escaped in Rome caught up with us in our two hour wait to get into the Uffizi, which if you know even a little bit about art, is worth it. Florence is definitely the city to go to if you want art and architecture, even if the churches do start to all look the same after a while.
The last day we took a train to Pisa, where we spent approximately an hour and a half. Pisa is a really small city; we were able to walk from the train station to the other end of town in about 20 minutes. While it is no Rome or Florence, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is worth a visit if you have a few hours to spare.
I could go on and on about the sights and the food and the people, but I am just going to leave that up to you to discover. Have you booked that ticket yet?
