Rome and Venice, Italy!!

Note: please at least once in your life time come over to Switzerland and Italy.. These countries are beautiful.

From March 28th - April 2nd, I went on a trip through Italy with Rotary as our end of the year trip. Weird right? I've already finished the end of the year trip, this exchange is just flying by.. Anyway it was just the most incredible trip!! Six days that were just PACKED with things to do, with  52 exchange students here in Switzerland and 2 incredible Rotex (former exchange students that are now leaders for excursions like this) along with 2 Rotarians that dedicated 6 days to take us on our trip. All of them were incredible!

March 28th - Met with the other Basel exchange students at 5:15 a.m at the Basel train station to embark on our journey  to Rome! We finally arrived around 3:00 pm. First impression of Rome:  big, big city! There were people everywhere making their way around my goodness there were a lot of tourists!! We walked to our hotel after arriving at the Rome train station, and I was in a room with 4 other really fun girls so I was really happy about that: Ana, Celine, Sophie and Megan. After settling down and throwing our stuff in the room, we all had free time to look around and familiarize ourselves with where we were located in Rome. So a bunch of us walked around with two very important destinations: an ice cream shop and Colosseum. We luckily found both with no problems, and I will tell you a very well known fact, ITALIAN ICE CREAM IS AMAZING. You have to try it. We sat around on the outside of the Colosseum just talking and soaking up all that we were seeing. Then it was time to head back to the hotel, have our dinner and hang out with our friends until curfew.

March 29th - Woke up and went to, drum roll please... the Vatican!! We had a tour in the morning with our guide. We went through some incredible places there! We started off going through the Sistine Chapel, covered in beautiful paintings all over the walls, painted by Michael Angelo. Then we went into the Pope Cemetery, in a basement with a bunch of above ground caskets with pictures of them and a short biography on a plaque explaining their life or what they did. It was incredible being in a room with such known and loved people, such heroes to some people, it was very special. Then we went to the St Peter's Basilica, which was just incredible. It's the largest church in the world, and the decorations inside are just unbelievable. Absolutely gorgeous!! Of course afterwards we went to St Peter's Square, and saw the place that we have all seen on TV when it's just covered with people everywhere. It was so special for me, because I remember watching Pope John Paul the Seconds funeral on TV and seeing that exact place, and I couldn't believe that I was actually standing there. Then we went into St Peter's dome.. We walked up 550 steps to get to the top and once we stepped out onto the platform at the top  I couldn't believe my eyes. First of all, it was the most perfect day.. The sun was shining, it was all blue skies everywhere, and the temperatures were just perfect. We step out and I couldn't believe my eyes, it was an amazing lookout to see the beautiful city of Rome! The beautiful buildings everywhere, not grey or silver, everything was orange. It was just like the movies, and it was just perfect. Then a bunch of us went for lunch, and you guessed it.. that Italian Pizza!! Woooo, it is SO great. The afternoon was free time so we walked around, getting more of a taste for this beautiful city.

March 30th- Ancient Rome day!! Once again our tour guide gave us a tour for the whole morning around ancient Rome. We started off by going into the Colosseum. That's where the Gladiators and animals used to fight for entertainment, massive numbers of people and animals were killed in that place we stood in. It's so hard to imagine that and compare how much has changed since the Roman times.. Can you imagine animals and humans fighting each other to death in a theater today??  Try to get insurance for that!
Afterwards we walked through preserved parts where the ancient cities used to stand, with the buildings still there and monuments everywhere. Once again we had free time during the afternoon so we took advantage of every second and tried to see as much as possible since it was our last full day in Rome. We started off by going to a very well known Ice cream place and if you said "surprise me!" they had a lot of fun with it and just gave you so much of different flavors. While we were in there, there was a random huge hail storm!! It was such a beautiful day then all of a sudden we are hovering under the sun umbrellas as that ice cream shop waiting for the hail to finish, along with the loud bangs of thunder, it was really fun! Once that finished we went to  the famous "Fountana de Trevvi" a.k.a Trevvi Fountain, where all your wishes come true. 5 of us stood there with our backs facing the fountain, coin in our hand, eyes closed and chucked it into the fountain hoping that what we wished for would come true. Afterwards we went to the famous Spanish Stairways, and sat there in the beautiful sun enjoying our moments in Rome. After dinner a bunch of us went back to the Colosseum and sat down while this beautiful place was all lit up and talked, it was an incerdible moment.

March 31st - It was time to head onto our next journey, so we woke up and then back to the train station we went. We were on our way to the unbelievably beautiful city, Venice. Once I arrived I split off with Celine, a friend of mine that's also from Canada.  Our goal was to simply get lost in Venice. It's not a big city so you don't have to be nervous about getting lost, it was such a good idea of hers. We just wondered up and down random tiny alley ways, and over a million random bridges. Venice is full of water canals, so the main mode of transportation is by boat!! So together we roamed around going in and out of tiny shops, over bridges, through alleys, and every once in a while we would just sit down alongside the canal, feet over the edge and just enjoy the fact that there we sat in Venice. Everything is built on the water, the basements of houses were in the water, everything is was so cool!

April 1st- Started off with a tour around the beautiful city in Venice, from a woman that has lived in or around Venice her whole life. So she took us around all the quiet back roads and alleys in Venice and also the well known famous places like St Marco's Square. In the afternoon we had free time so of course we had to go on those famous Gondola boats, that are long and skinny where the man stands up at the back singing and paddling. Hands down one of the most amazing moments in my life.. In this skinny boat with 5 of my friends going up and down the narrow water streets, in Venice. Afterwards we took a fairy boat to an island that's still considered Venice but it took about 20 minutes to get there, when we were there we went to a beach!! A beautiful beach on the Mediterranean Sea. The weather was perfect it was all just perfect. I absolutely love Venice and will definitely go back there again one day! In the evening a bunch of Canadians got together and went to the local fountain that was huge and colorful, and sat there, talked and soaked in all that we just did, enjoying our last night in Italy.

April 2nd- Boarded the train and headed on our long journey back to Basel, Switzerland

. It was sad to leave but I was also excited to be back with my host family again.. I just switched and they are absolutely incredible. I will blog about them soon !!  I am having the time of my life with them, I already feel like I have lived with them my whole life, they make me feel completely at home. Plus, the weather here in Switzerland is INCREDIBLE. Right now I sit outside writing this blog, shorts and a tshirt and still boiling! Everything is so perfect right now. I LOVE EXCHANGE !!