The last day of Florence and the last day of our trip :(. I can't believe it is all over. This morning we met up with a walking tour guide to take us around the city of Florence. To be honest, until this point I wasn't sure Florence was all that spectacular but a greater depth of exploration and a little guidance showed me that this city is full of history and amazing design both from years past and modern design and culture. You walk along and will be looking at hundreds of year old architecture, art and sculpture, then turn the corner and you are walking on high town streets packed full of designer stores. There is so much variety and culture in Florence! On the walking tour we stopped off at a few of Florences finest art museums (My favorite stop? The David by Michelangelo) After the tour we had more time to shop, eat and enjoy one last night in Florence and Europe. My gelato reflected the sunset of bright oranges, reds and yellows as I indulged in my surroundings (and gelato.) Off to bed to wake up for an early start and a journey home!

When your hotel room is dark and cold I guess that means you sleep until almost noon and miss breakfast. Oh well. I woke up and started once more at the markets to buy presents and last time shopping. That was the extent of my day. I’m just enjoying more of Florence and taking it all in before we come home on Thursday.

Florence

6 am wake up call and dragging our luggage back to the train station to catch a 3 hour train to Florence. Luckily it was earlier this time so it wasn’t as hot…or as sweaty. When we got to Florence we had to drag our bags again to our hotel but it wasn’t as far this time and the hotel is air conditioned so it made for a nice nap and groggily waking up for an Italian lunch and then shopping at the local market. Then home for more sleep and more food..probably more shopping. Go Florence!

Venice 2

Second and final day of Venice so once again I just tried to absorb and enjoy as much of Italy as I could soo what better place to go than the BEACH! We took the water bus (ferry) to Lido which was a good way to see Venice fast. It just cruised down the river and passed all the museums, churches and houses along the way. At the end of the canal the water way opens up to bigger waters (I’m not really sure how to describe it like many things in this blog) but anyway when it opens up to more water you can look back and see all of the city built on the water and just all the houses and buildings and its so amazing. I am still in awe at how the city was built and just the mystery and the history behind the city. We choose a beautiful sunny day to go to the beach and enjoyed napping on the sand and swimming in the warm water. In the afternoon we made our way back to Venice to shop some more! Truly a beautiful city that I will definitely be coming back to!

Venice

We arrived at the main train station in Venice that morning but transferred trains and headed back out of Venice to our hotel in a little town outside of the city. When we got to the stop we had to drag our luggage for 15 mins to the Hotel Inn Express. It was the middle of the day in the heat of Italy and we were all still dressed for chilly Paris so it got a little sweaty. Good workout for the day though. After showers and short naps we went back to the main part of Venice to walk around and shop. I loved Venice just as much as I thought I would and it was great to just absorb the feel of an Italian city.

Last Day of Paris

Last Day in Paris…everything went by so fast because of the short time to do so much. Once again I headed to the Eiffel Tower (lucky it’s close to my hotel) to try one last time to go to the top before leaving for Italy. I met up with my Australian friends at the Australian Embassy on the way but when we got to the Eiffel Tower the lines were so long that there was no way we could do it in the amount of time we had so even though I went to the Eiffel Tower at least 3 times I didn’t end up going up. Even though it may seem disappointing I enjoyed the memories just being at the Eiffel tower and being with friends. Rhys, you’re awesome if you ever read this! Sydney Parkour…yeah! After leaving the boys I went shopping on the first day of sales in Paris and then straight back to the hotel and then off to the train station to catch our overnight train to Venice. Imagine with me if you will 5 girls plus luggage cramped into a 4’ by 6’ room that was no more than 10’ tall. Fun huh? Lucky I can sleep anywhere. When we woke up we were in Italy!

Versailles

At 9:30 am we were met by our instructor in our hotel lobby to go to Versailles. We spent the whole day at the Chateau and only got to see probably less than half of the whole property. What we saw was very grand and I especially loved the Hall of Mirrors which they just finished renovating on Monday after 3 years so we were very lucky to see them in all of their glory! I’ll leave the rest up to the pictures because I don’t know how to describe it in words.