Italy

My family actually just recently got back from our trip to Europe where we wanted to hit parts of Italy and Greece. We wanted to take a two week trip where we would dedicate a of couple days to travel there and back, four days in Italy, and the rest of our time in Greece. We had decided beforehand that everyone wanted to spend more time in Greece than in Italy.

Now I don't know if someone cursed some of our flights for this trip or what, but somehow we had trouble with almost every single flight during this trip. I'll start with our flight heading out of Little Rock Airport to Denver, Colorado. We made it on time to our flight, got through security and everything. Bags were good to go, we had just ate a good meal at Outback Steakhouse to help us hold off on eating airport food for as long as possible, and everyone was excited to head to Europe! When we get our tickets with our seats assigned, we realized we were scattered across the plane. This usually wouldn't be a big deal, except for the fact that we had three kids traveling with us. Thankfully we were able to switch with some kind people on the plane to where at least each kid had an adult with them. Not the best start to a flight, but we got through it! We get our seats situated and the plane starts to head towards the runway. All of the sudden we stop and listen to the announcement that we need to hold off on takeoff because of bad weather in the Denver area. We ended up just having to sit in the plane for an extra hour before even taking off. This created some chaos within the plane. People were getting angry because they wouldn't be able to make their connecting flight. When we finally takeoff, the flight went well but my family realized we would have to sprint through the Denver airport to be able to try and make it for our connecting flight from Denver to Germany. We weren't very confident in ourselves, but all eight of us began to sprint through the airport once we got off the plane. By the grace of God, my family was able to barely make it to our flight. The people scanned our tickets and passports and we rushed to get on the plane. This would be our long flight of nine hours. Honestly, the rest of the flights to Italy went pretty smoothly, so I'll skip to when we actually get into Italy.

We stayed right outside of Venice in a town called Mestre. Our first night there after our flight we decided to explore Mestre and walk around. It was already pretty late and we were trying to adjust to the change in time so we didn't do a whole lot. We found a pizza place to eat at and afterward got some gelato.

On the next day, we would begin our struggle with the foreign public transportation system. We would end up catching a bus (after failing a couple of times due to some overconfidence and a lack of understanding) to the beautiful Venice. We ate a delicious brunch as soon as we made it to Venice and then decided to walk around. We took some pictures, ate some more gelato, and ended the night with a gondola ride. In Venice, we ended up checking out St. Mark's Square and doing a tour of St. Mark's Basilica and Doge's Palace. We spent two days exploring Venice and honestly that was enough. My family had come to the conclusion that Venice was great, but there's only so much to see and explore there.

Our last part of Italy consisted of a trip to Rome. We started our trip to Rome with a four-hour train ride there. I'm gonna go ahead and say that the train ride was probably the best part. We were able to see different parts of Italy on our train ride and it was simply beautiful. When we got to Rome we wanted to find somewhere to eat before our scheduled tour of the Colosseum. We found a cute spot, ate there, and headed to the Colosseum. Now Rome was CROWDED. There were constantly aggressive and persistent people in your ear trying to sell you umbrellas for shade, water for hydration, and fans to cool yourself down. It was a bit overwhelming, especially when trying to keep track of a party of eight people. The Colosseum tour was fantastic and breathtaking. To be able to walk through it was such an experience. However, it was a hot day and the kids didn't find it that interesting so they were getting agitated. After our Colosseum tour, we walked around to find a place to get something refreshing to drink and, of course, some gelato! We sat there and looked for something else to do during our day trip to Rome. We were taking the last train of the day back so we had plenty more hours to spend in Rome. We ended up deciding on going to see the Vatican City. We tried to take the metro, but it was down for the day so we unfortunately had to take the bus. Usually, the bus isn't bad but, like I stated previously, Rome was crowded and now that the metro was down, the bus became the main source of public transportation for almost everyone. The buses were stuffed and we were stuck there for a thirty-minute trip to go see the Vatican City. When we finally get to the Vatican City, we walk around and take in the beautiful architecture. Before we head back to the train station we decide to go eat at a McDonald's that was near by (how American, right?). When it's finally time to head back to the train station we face some trouble. We tried getting on the bus, but it was that time of day where almost everyone needed to get on the bus at the same time and there wouldn't be room for all eight of us to be on the same bus. We were in a time crunch because we had to make our train by a certain time. We started trying to get a taxi, but we were once again faced with trouble because of our large party size. My older brother decides to try out Uber and see if there is anything available for us. He finds an Uber that can fit six people. At this point in time, we only have a little bit of time left before we need to be on the train, and me and my twin are starting to stress. Nobody wants to stay any longer in Rome than we have to at this point. My twin brother checks how long it would be to walk to the station and it tells us that we would make it on time if we ended up running. Since the Uber says it can only fit six people, me and my twin decide to sacrifice and start running towards the train station (with the help of Google Maps), letting our other family members take the Uber. It ended up taking us about forty-five minutes of running/lightly jogging to make it there. Honestly, I wish we weren't in such a rush while running to the station because I would've loved to take pictures. I feel like we got to see so much of Rome, even if it was rushed. Thankfully, we all make it to the station with just enough time. While my twin and I were running, our mother is having a breakdown because she's worried we will get stuck in Rome and our sister-in-law ended up getting cussed out by a server at a cafe for ordering her "silly American latte." We get on our train ride back to Mestre and all pass out for the four hours. In conclusion for our visit to Rome: the locals are rude, the place has been tainted with tourism, it has a predatory atmosphere there, and I would personally only go back if it was me and my own personal bodyguard. I was also constantly stressing over the kids, making sure they were with someone at all times because Rome didn't feel safe for women or children in my opinion.

Italy was incredible and I would love to go back to visit Florence, check out an authentic winery there, and explore more places. I highly recommend having gelato at least once a day during your visit. There's a lot of walking so it's important to bring comfortable and high-quality shoes.