A Week in Italy
By: Tiffany Sung, Foster Undergraduate
Hi everyone, it’s Tiffany again, and here’s the post on Italy that I promised! During reading week, I went to Italy with two of my friends who are also on exchange, Yolanda and Karen. We started our journey in Venice, slowly made our way down south to Pisa and Rome, and had a wonderful time!
Venice
We arrived in Venice around noon, had a quick lunch (amazing pizza and gelato!), and decided to follow our travel guide’s suggestion: wander around the island map-less. Turned out, that might have been the best
suggestion we could ever get. Since the main island is very small and has literally no cars, we were able to leisurely explore the city, hop on any waterbus, and get lost in the beautiful scenery.
After two days in Venice, we bid the lovely city farewell, took the train, and travelled towards our next destination—Pisa!
Pisa
We made a special four-hour stop at Pisa to see one of the seven wonders of medieval world—the Leaning Tower of Pisa. And I must say making this extra stop was decision well-made! After all, not only has the tower managed to stand in a leaning position for hundreds of years, but it is also where Galileo conducted his experiment on acceleration. Bell towers do not get any more awesome than this.
Rome
We spent the last three days of our trip in Rome visiting the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, and Vatican City. We also followed Audrey Hepburn’s footsteps in the movie Roman Holiday and visited the Trevi Fountain, ate gelato on the Spanish Steps, and put our hands in the Mouth of Truth. Rome is such a convenient city for travelling—all the tourist attractions are closely located, the metro is surprisingly cheap, and there is so much to explore!
After our trip to Italy, here are some travelling tips that I think would be useful when planning for your reading
week:
– Invest in a money belt (the really thin ones that can be hidden underneath your clothes). This might sound kind of
silly, but after hearing a lot of pickpocketing stories that happened in Rome, I decided to get one just in case. It definitely made me feel much safer when I stood in the incredibly crowded Roman metro while carrying all my Euros and passport with me.
– Plan ahead of time and you’ll find so many great deals on flight/train tickets and hotels!
– Bring a travel guide with you—especially if the people in the country you are going to might not understand English. It really helps when you have pictures and words to point at while communicating with the locals.
-Take advantage of your time in England, do some research, and plan out amazing trips to the places in Europe
that you’ve always wanted to visit!
