Hey folks I've been out of town for a while as some may have noticed that i haven't posted much lately.

I just got back from an 11 day vacation in the wonderful country of Italy! I was so excited to go. I've taken several art history classes during my studies in college. So this was a real treat to get to see some of the art and structures that I would often spend weeks studying in class.

Day 1: Our flight was at 7 a.m. From the infamous LAX airport. Because security there is so tight and it would take at least a 40 minute drive to get there, my family decided to leave the house at 3 am. Oh joy. I did my best to stay up the whole night before hand so that when I finally got in the plane I would be able to sleep. So we finally get on the first plane which was headed to Charlotte North Carolina before connecting to the flight to Rome, and I realized I wasn't going to be getting any sleep at all. There was a little girl in the seat in front of me probably no older then 6 years old.. I made the fatal mistake of smiling at her once which earned me a 4 hour plane ride of her constantly bothering me. She would pop her head around the seat and would poke my leg and eventually started getting really touchy which was... awkward.... I kept saying to myself that her parents would tell her to stop but they were blissfully unaware and actually.. probably happy that their kid was bothering me not them... So we finally leave and there is a two hour layover before our plane to rome.. on this plane.. I slept and boy did I sleep good I slept almost the entire 8 hours of the trip which was... AMAZING! Anyways we land in rome at like.. 7 am their time and I have now been traveling for more then 24 hours and was so wiped out that when we got to the hotel i crashed. I was thankful that first day wasn't going to be to crazy. That late afternoon about 5pm roman time we met our tour guide named Jeff.. Now.. this man.. did more then was ever expected of him and if you ever take a tour of italy I highly recommend doing one with this man. He was epic... and he was from New Zealand which was even more epic (I get a hard on for kiwis in like less then a second). And so after meeting up with him and the rest of the group we went out to dinner in Rome.

The group consisted of the stereotypical type of people... there were the loud obnoxious americans.. (go team... no.. you guys sucked.. hard.. i was ashamed to be from the states). There were the australian partiers, another couple from new zealand. A few Europeans and canadians as well.

Day 2: This was our biggest day of sight seeing. We woke up early like the butt crack of dawn so we could go to the Vatican City. It's crazy it's a whole country in of itself! We got to tour the grounds, St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. The architecture there was just breath taking. And our local tour guide for the day was rather knowledgeable. His name was Carlo and he reminded me of a rather short tubby version of Dumbledore with an italian accent. From the vatican we then went over to the forum and toured the colosseum. It was huge I can only imagine how amazing it was during it's heyday. After the colosseum we went to go and see the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish steps. Both of them rather interesting as well. And after what seemed like miles of walking we finally wound up at the Pantheon.It was such a tiring day and we walked something like 8 miles to tour all around the city. Most of the loud obnoxious Americans were complaining at this point.

Day 3: We had another early morning because we had to drive a few hours down the coast to catch a boat over to the beautiful Island of Capri. We got to take a small cruise around the shores of the island and saw some of the most beautiful blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. We spent about hallf the day touring the island with our local guide Dario... he was awkward and seemed to be such the Italian playboy. After Capri we took another small boat across the sea back to the mainland to the city of Sorento. It was such a lovely city perched on the cliffs overlooking the water. We went to an inlay wood demonstration which was rather interesting and then visited the lemoncello factory... probably one of the few alcohols I discovered I actually liked on this trip! Anyways... the hotel was nice but was the only hotel with a pool and we weren't allowed to use it because there was a wedding reception being held out by it. I wanted to just jump in the pool anyways but im not sure the bride and groom would appreciate that.

Day 4: Back in the bus to head to the lost city of Pompeii. It was so sad.. there are tons of wild dogs that live in the area around the ruins and all of them are available for adoption. The people that run the entrance area for the city make sure that the dogs all are well taken care of and some of them were so adorable I wanted to take them home. Though not sure how our tour director would feel about a dog on the bus. As we toured around the ruins though these dogs would follow us seeking the companionship of the people around them. After pompeii it was back in the bus to head to Assissi. Where the Patron saint of animals St. Francis got his name. This was a really cute city perched on the hill but other then the church of St Francis there wasn't much going on as the city was rather quiet.

Day 5. Back on the bus this time to head over to the lovely floating city of Venice. Upon arrival we took a Gondola around the city serenaded by a musician and sipped prosecco (a very sweet sparkling white wine) It was beautiful just casually floating by all the buildings in the area and you get to see the true venice on the water. From there we took a small water taxi up the grand canal and headed back to the hotel.

Day 6: Back to Venice again This time we did quite a few things. In the early morning we went to the island of Murano to see some artisan glass blowers. I was transfixed by the man who made a vase and the figure of a horse in less then three minutes each. the way he worked the molten glass was just mind boggling. After that we were back to the main area of Venice and St Mark's Square. I was excited cause I got to buy a traditional venetian mask and a blank cat mask... I'll have to figure out what to do with the blank one and I'm sure you will see pics at the end of the project. Anyways we toured the Duke's palace and crossed over the bridge of sighs as well. And after that we took another boat cruise over to the island of Burano for a HUGE and by huge I mean.. 12 course lunch. It was lovely though and all the houses were like.. technicolor. Id love to live there for a while.

Day 7: From Venice we traveled North to visit Lake Como. This lake is where all the celebrities and rich people of Italy own a home to vacation. We took a boat cruise around the lake and got to see all the palaces that lined the shores including once owned by the old royal family of italy and George Clooney! to name a few. This was our most relaxing day though and comma had the most luxurious hotel with.. *le-gasp!* free wifi! most places charged at least 8 euro for half an hour of internet which comes out to like 15 US dollars.. such a terrible deal.

Day 8: From Como we traveled down the coast headed towards Florence. However along the way we found time to sneak in a tour of pisa. We got to see the tower and take corny photos of us trying to hold it up while it leaned. We ate lunch at McDonalds which.. in italy.. is better then in the states. Or perhaps it was the fact we were sick and tired of having pasta or pizza for just about every meal. Anyways.. we made it down to Florence for the afternoon and took a tour of the Academy of arts which featured none other then the most perfect man in the world. Why? because he is... quiet... yes.. that's it... he's quiet! David stood there at 17 feet tall in all his naked glory.. mmm i like the quiet >.> haha. Anyways after a bit more of touring the city we made it back to our hotel.

Day 9: We found ourselves back in Florence for another half day. In the morning we went to a gold artisan demonstration and saw beautiful jewelry, and then also went to a leather artisan demonstration where they taught us about their fine leather. Florence is known both for it's jewelry and clothing made from cow hides. ;) Then a bit of shopping and we were back not he bus to head back down to Rome

Day 10: Rome and the airport. Our flight was at 11 in the morning which meant we have to leave the hotel at 7 am. I was appalled at the security in the roman airport. In LAX you have to go through like five security checks, including the dreaded TSA full body scan and have your passport completely checked out and yadda yadda. But in rome there was one guy at a single booth you just flashed your passport and walked on through.. he didn't even bother to check it. It was such a cultural difference and I guess shows off our fear int he states. Anyways the flight back took ten hours which were just miserable because we were flying against the wind. Then another layover in Charlotte NC where our plane was delayed two hours.. that sucked.. and we got back to los angeles eventually after 9pm. However our shuttle driver on the way home was an absolute idiot or something.. he somehow managed to take the wrong route and took us like.. 30 minutes in the wrong direction from our house. he hardly spoke english and it took us that long for us to convey to him he did something wrong.. so instead of being home at 9:40.. we didn't get home till almost close to midnight..

Anyways... that's the end of that... I know it was a lot to read but I know some of you out there wanted full details on the trip :D kudos if you read the whole thing