On June 8th my momma and I left for our 21 day European Vacation! We were both insanely nervous. We had a travel agent plan every single aspect of our trip, so I don't know why we were so nervous but we were! We arrived in Rome the next morning super jet lagged & went straight to our hotel to get some sleep! Our travel agent was quite the bad @%*... we stayed in the most amazing hotels! 13 hours of sleep & some yummy pizza later we felt like normal humans.
The next morning we woke up in Rome and had some time to explore before leaving for The port of Civitavecchia to catch our cruise ship! We went to explore Vatican City! Y'all, I can't put into words how beautiful Rome is. Yea, it's a huge city with a ton of people that don't know how to drive, but the architecture is INSANE. Before we left everyone said meh Rome is okay, just another big city. It is, but when you're from Texas, were everything is flat. You really appreciate the Architecture!
We took the first of many busses down the coast to hop on our cruise! The Italian country side is beautiful. I will have pictures at the end of this post but they don't do it justice!
We boarded our ship, unpacked, relaxed, and the next morning we woke up in Sicily. We decided to take a city bus tour. It took us all over the town & to all the beautiful landmarks! Afterwards, we got some gelato and went shopping!
The next morning we woke up in Mykonos, Greece. Y'all, it was hands down one of the most beautiful places I've ever and will probably ever see. The houses are all white, with pops of bright colors. The streets are all cobblestone, everywhere you look is a new place for a photo! I can't wait to go back! We shopped around for a few hours the went to Ornos Beach. It was FREEZING, I wore a sweatshirt and covered up with a towel the entire time, but it's okay because our view was breathtaking! After the beach we went to eat lunch. If you know me you know I am super picky. So I ate french fries hah! The shopping in Mykonos was amaaazzzzingggg!!!
The next morning we were in Kusadasi, Turkey. Prior to arriving to Turkey, my mom and I were like "why are we going to Turkey" "what are we going to do in Turkey"... Oh my goodness... It is sooo beautiful!!! We started the morning, on a bus, go figure lol. After 1/2 an hour we arrived at the House of the Virgin Mary which is located on Mt. Koressos, CRAZY right?! Well, she didn't live in that exact house, but they have evidence that she spent her last years there. We drank Holy water and walked around soaking up the views. Afterwords we headed to Ephesus! Only 20% of Ephesus has been excavated. Basically, its a really, really old place. They think the chapter "John" in the bible was written here & Apostle Paul preached here! Turkey is on my list of places I have to go back too. We needed much more then just one day there.
After Turkey, we arrived in Santorini, Greece! Holy moly guys, I've never seen a place so beautiful in my entire life. We started the day, on a bus haha. The island of Santorini was formed by a volcano, the entire ride I thought we were going to fall right off of the "road" into the ocean! After an hour bus ride we arived in the town of Oia. If you have ever seen pictures of the Greek Islands, I'm sure it was a picture of Oia. The houses are all painted white, with blue domes. I know Ive said it 100 times but it was so beautiful! We shopped around and took in the amazing views. Then we headed to a winery on the other end of the island. After the winery, we went shopping!
Next stop was Athens, Greece. I don't have much to say about Athens because we took a tour we didn't love...Greece is super corrupt, the entire city is covered in graffiti. Its heart breaking! We went to the Acropolis & the Panatheniac Stadium, the first modern day Olympics were held there!
Next was Naples, were we took the most AMMMAAZING 13 hour tour EVER!!! We started the morning on a bus (guess you wouldn't have ever guessed that). We stopped at a limoncello factory, so cool! We then headed out for the Amalfi Coast. Y'all, Im not even going to try and explain how freakin' beautiful it is. Just google it, or GO! The Amalfi Coast was our favorite place (we are planning on going next year). We stopped in the town of Sorrento and went shopping & ate some gelato! Paper was actually discovered here. We then took a boat to meet our bus driver to head to Pompeii... Which was seriously amazing.. Pompeii was covered in volcanic ash, when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79AD.
This was the end of our 9 day cruising adventure! Now we start our 9 day land adventure!
We arrived back in Rome from the port at about 11 am, we couldn't check into our hotel until 2 pm so we ventured out to do some shopping & eating! We discovered this hole in the wall pizza place that was sooo delish! We also stumbled upon a 5 story Zara. It was insane!
In our three days in Rome we saw the Trevi fountain, Spanish steps, Colosseum, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Palatine Hill, and Piazza Venezia! You might notice we didn't go to the Sistine Chapel or to the Vatican. To be 100% honest in 11 days we had seen at least 50 churches and I wasn't in the mood to spend 100$ to see another one. Next time we will definitely go though!
Three days later we took a train up to Florance! Remember how I said our Travel Agent was amazing?! Well, she booked us in the best hotel ever! We stayed at the Golden Tower Hotel & Spa, when you opened the door to our room you had to go up a spiral staircase (idk how the guy got all our suitcases up)! We had a huge room which is a plus bc everything in Europe is tiinyyyy! We unpacked and then went to grab some pizza. Our hotel was across from LV, Prada, & Chanel. We window shopped & then went back to our room! We had complimentary Turkish baths, sat in the steam room, and swam in the hot tub for a bit! We then went on the search for some dinner! The next morning we went on a tour around the city of Florence, afterwords we shopped and ate. The last day in Florence we took a 13 hour tour to Piza, San Gimignano, Tuscany, & Sienna!
Our last stop was Venice! We took the train, which btw is so easy! We arrived to Venice and took a water taxi to our hotel! We stayed at the Hotel Monaco & Grand Canal! It was right on the water and right next to the Gondola station! Also, it is right across from Harrys Bar, where the Bellini was invented! We took it super easy the last three days because we were worn out.. We shopped and ate, shopped and ate, oh and somewhere in there we took a Gondola ride & went to the "most interesting bookshop in the world".
Venice was a magical little city. It is so bind boggling that it is literally all on water! I am so happy we ended our Eurotrip here! We hopped on our water taxi & went to the airport bright and early and flew home to the most wonderful place in the entire world, Texas! I am so happy to have gone on this trip with my mom, it is something I will cherish for a lifetime!
