Journey journal: Italia

Hello my rag time gaaaaaaaaal~~~~<3333

Yet another successful vacation trip is over, and I renewed my appreciation for home once more <3 Here's what was going on:

Day 1. 

August 27th, 14:50 five people including me, my mother, sister and two friends left Lithuania for Italy. We arrived in the Ciampino air port in three hours and it was HOT, in comparison to the +16 celsius we had at home. We got to Rome city center and managed finding the hotel in 20 minutes, which is quite good seeing as Rome is one big maze for me. After we settled in, we went out for a walk around town, we had like 10 maps to count on and each of us had our own idea of where we should go. Eventually we settled with me leading the way though. We went to see Santa Maria Maggiore first and then the Coliseum which was frickin HUGE. I did not expect it to be that big. And amazing. In general everything there looked so vintage and amazing it was just breathtaking. The sun set really soon though, so we headed back. Felt dangerous honestly.

Day 2.

Today we continued our exploring in Rome. We went to see the  Fountain di Trevi, which unfortunately was closed then, later the Pantheon, which I personally liked the best. Now I'm not architecture fan usually, but this was really really awesome. It's so much everything! It's soooo pretty! I luuurved it. Then we visited Vatican. Didn't see the pope, the St. Peter's Basilica  was quite something as well though. Honestly the sculptures in Italy are like nothing I've ever seen before, they're so wonderful. 

After that we returned, grabbed our stuffs and went back to the airport. We got our rented car (after a bit of a struggle with the car rental lady who didn't quite want to provide proper service) and set off to the sea side~~<3 It was in a place near Grosseto, but not quite there. Though a bit of a problem was finding the place we had to stay in, since mom insisted on stopping in a supermarket.... for a few hours, in which time it got pitch black outside. We had to call quite a few people back home to give us proper directions, but aside from major exhaustion, all ended well.

Day 3.

Mom and her friend were fans of getting up early. So we did. At like 8 am.... Which was very cruel seeing as how we didn't have anything planned for the day. We mostly lazed around at the beach enjoying the sun and waves. Very warm water too, lovely place yes yes. After lazing for a while, we went to Castiglione Della Pescaia, which we instantly loved. It was so cute and nice <3 Even my sunburnt skin was worth checking out the place and that ancient castle town thing. We tried looking for a pizza place in a town nearby but didn't find any of our liking, so we settled with home cooking.

Day 4.

This was the only day I was allowed to sleep in, which I definitely needed. Today we went to Pisa to see the leaning tower. We didn't quite know where to look though, so ended up going in circles for a while. Very hot weather they have there, very hot. The tower itself was not as big as I imagined. Very interesting though. It looks almost like it's about to fall at any second o_o Wish we could have afforded to go inside. Actually in general the prices they have in Italy are the same as here in Lithuania, only in euros. While 1 euro = 3.5 Lt (our money). After exploring, we went back to Castiglione and had pizza. Very good pizza MM! So much better than what we have here. A little burnt though.

Day 5.

Nothing went on. We spent the day at the beach.

Day 6. 

Early in the morning we packed our bags and left the beach house heading to San Marino. It was a loong long journey through the mountains. In fact I didn't imagine it would take 5 hours... The mountain roads were as twisted as they can get. Can't imagine how people manage driving through these. I got carsick real badly by the time we reached San Marino :I I didn't think it would be at the top of a mountain! Very very picturesque, yes, but sooooo high up. We didn't explore the city much, only as much as we saw by car, but we did go up the castle. It was full of souvenir shops and restaurants, that disappointed me a little. Aside from that though, it's a really impressive city. Couldn't live there, too high for me. We went to Rimini for the night. Total tourist town.

Day 7.

After being carsick yesterday, I got a migraine that lasted till the next morning. Which was not much fun honestly, I'm just thankful we took the expensive highway through the mountains while driving back. You italians have expensive roads! The mountains were pretty though. We spent the night in Ciampino, near the airport. The hotel was pretty nice, with the pool and all. Had another pizza night that night, so good MMMMMMMM..... yes. 

Day 8.

We found out that breakfast was not included in the cost of the hotel, so we got up super early for no reason! And totally left to the airport with only yesterday's pizza in out tummies. The whole day was and still seems so long with the waiting and the flying... 

And that's roughly all that went on in Italy this week for me. Ain't nothing like a vacation trip to make me feel like home. Put off uni for a week too >: D

Now back to routine, my butterflies, ciao!~