Italy (Rome and Florence)

So I've been to Italy before. A few times I think now. Too many to Milan, as it's a main area to fly out of, and to Genoa. Nothing is like Rome and Florence though. After leaving Mykonos, that turned out to be a very relaxing, enjoyable place, Sarah-Jane and I caught the ferry back to Athens and then a flight to Rome. We were only there for about a day, but saw as much as we could in the time we had. The first night we wandered around, aimlessly searching for somewhere to stay the night. And after a few attempts to find somewhere, we managed to find this all-girls hostel one stop away from the train station. Perfect, as we were getting a train the next evening to Florence to meet Chris, Sarah's boyfriend. So we crashed and got up early to explore the city. We hit up the Trevi Fountain, threw coins in and made wishes and immediately headed to the Coliseum. We ran into a few other neat monuments and architecture on the walk there. Sarah grabbed some gelato while I settled for a frozen drink to cool off the blistering hot day. Ice cream isn't really my thing, even when it's supposed to be the best in Europe. The Coliseum was spectacular, still standing half-deteriorated, but nothing like I imagined it to be. The floor that the gladiators fought on was gone, exposing the underground tunnels that weaved their way around the middle circle. The stairs and seats were almost non-existent and it was physically and mentally hard to picture how it used to look so long ago. It's too bad we didn't come just a bit later. Supposedly the tunnels were going to be opened up to the public soon allowing a guided tour through the maze that seemed to stretch another two stories below ground. I'm jealous. Maybe it would have made me feel a little more sensation… however, after a nice light and cool lunch, we checked out this Virtual Museum just down the road from where the Coliseum stands. It was quite informative and I wished I had (like in Athens) gone to the museum first. The effects were super cool and I would definitely recommend someone to go there, even if it is just for the air-conditioning and cheesy virtual effects that lead you through Rome B.C.

We got our bags from the hostel, headed for the train station and moved on to Florence.
The campground we stayed in was very nice, with a beautiful overlook of the city. The atmosphere designed for backpackers, but more chill than wild since families stayed there too. Since we didn't get there till late, we called it an early night so we would have a good amount of the day to spend checking out the city. I didn't really feel like I was in Tuscany until I looked past the city to see the Olive Trees and Grape vines filling the landscape.. I would have loved to go to a wine tasting and exploration of the country side, but just not enough time. We walked around the next day, just enjoying the beautiful city it was. The next morning we headed back to Rome to catch our flight to Thailand. It went as fast as it came… Europe was now behind me and I set out on a new adventure- known as South East Asia.