Some of you were a little worried that I would be missing out on some very important Italian cities. But never fear, you guys, because my previous post only covered half of my awesome vacation.
The last stop I talked about was Rome, and since that writing, I have become even more excited about the city, due in no small part to both Angels and Demons and Samantha Brown's Passport to Europe. From the former, I learned that there are signs of the Illuminati everywhere and that it's super-easy to kill bishops [edit: oh my, there is an Angels and Demons tour of Rome! People are crazy, y'all!]; from the latter, I learned that no matter how long I'm in Rome, I will never, ever see everything that I want to see.
From Rome, we'll set out to one of the (many) (many, many, many) places on my Bucket List: POMPEII.
I don't think I could adequately express how much I want to see this ruined city. I don't care how weird and macabre it makes me sound; I just find it fascinating, and it's one giant part of the reason I chose this tour over the other offerings. I'll probably get to Italy once in my entire life, and I'm going to see some volcano mummies, darn it!
Once I've had my fill of all the death and stuff, we're off to Sorrento. I don't know anything about the town, but when I lived in New York, we used to go to this restaurant called Sorrentos. It was run by an Italian family and they had the BEST PIZZA EVER, giant rectangles cut into little squares, with toppings just DUMPED on top. They had the greatest mushroom pizza I've ever tasted. I don't know if there's any connection, but I will be seeking out a pizza place, even though that is the probably the grossest touristy thing a person can do in Italy.
After I've put away my Ugly American, we'll go to the island of Capri, where maybe someone will explain those pants.
Then we drive to Pisa, where I will totally take one of those pictures. You know what I mean.
(I am rapidly losing any shame when it comes to this trip.)
After Pisa, we're heading straight to Florence.
Florence is not only the city I'm most excited to see, it's also the entire reason for this trip. You see, last year, I read A Room with a View, which immediately went on my list of top five favorite books ever. I love that book sooooo much, and when I finished, I said to myself, "I'M GOING TO FLORENCE." No further discussion was necessary.
I fully intend to take the Lucy Honeychurch tour of Florence, in which I will get lost at Santa Croce and faint in the Piazza della Signoria. And surely there's a field of violets around there SOMEWHERE. Like I said before: shameless.
(start at 4:25)
And while all this is my main reason for wanting so badly to go to Florence, there is another teeny, tiny reason: mummies.
If you know me at all, you know how I feel about mummies. And because I
So once I escape from prison ... uh, I mean ... once we leave Florence, we'll travel through Tuscany--where I can only presume that there are a bunch of divorced American women trying to renovate villas--to Mantua (where Romeo was exiled after killing Tybalt. NERD!) and Verona (where the Montagues and Capulets fought for centuries over who-knows-what).
While in Verona, I will OF COURSE go to Juliet's balcony, where I and millions of American freshmen will recite her famous monologue. Also, people apparently molest a statue of Juliet for good luck, but I might not be THAT shameless.
Did you know that Verona's best-known dish is horse? I saw it on tv, so it must be true. I will be a vegetarian that day.
After Verona, we travel to Vicenza. I don't know anything about this city, but Vicenza is almost my name, so I'm going to pretend that it's about me: a city celebrating me. (I totally think a city like that should exist anyway.)
After Vicenza, it's back to Venice, from whence I will PROBABLY return home.
But I make no promises.
2 comments:
Oh, I love A Room with a View. That's why I went to Florence, too. :)
I LOVED Italy, we went during spring break on an EF tour (it's mainly for students, but were were maybe 50% adults) We went to Verona, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Assisi, and Rome. We were there during the earthquake, which made everyone at home worry, but we were away from the quake zone. I think my favorite place was Assisi, it's really pretty there. My wife and I took 1700 pictures while we were there. EVERYBODY knew we were tourist......
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