We just got back from a real fun trip to Europe. We spent a total of 10 days visiting the island of Capri (Italy), Florence, Venice, Paris and Rome (in that order). We ended up taking the direct flight to Rome from Philadelphia, which was really comfortable and the food on the plane was actually decent. The day we got to Rome, we took a train to Naples and immediately after reaching Naples, took a boat to Rome. We finally got to Capri in late afternoon.
Capri was beautiful! We had a great view of the Mediterranean sea and the island from our hotel balcony. Neha was in love with the bougainvilla flowers that were right outside the hotel coz they reminded her of her childhood and the bougainvilla vine that was in her house where she grew up in India. The sea was really blue and it was fun to walk along the beach. Another place we visited was San Michele's villa which was a beautiful house with lovely gardens. The owner was actually a doctor and an author who wrote about this villa in his book before the place even existed. Afterwards, he ended up buying the villa and naming it after the villa he wrote about in his book.
Our next stop was Florence, which is a condensed city and a lot of fun to walk around. The best part of Florence is its gelato as it orginated from this city. The highlights of our trip to Florence were Duomo, Dante's House, Uffizzi Gallery, Accademia and their gelato. We actually ended up finding this gelataria suggested by our guide book. It is called Vivoli...as soon as Neha took the first bite of her hazelnut and pistachio gelato, she said, "I am in heaven." It was a real delight for both of us to have such excellend gelato. Kart really enjoyed Dante's House...it was interesting to see the visuals for Dante's interpretation of heaven and hell. Neha was looking forward to looking at Boticelli's work at the Uffizzi gallery. As soon as we entered the Boticelli room numbers 10 - 14, her jaw dropped. She fell in love with two very famous Boticelli paintings: Birth of Venus (the face of Venus from this painting is the splash screen for Adobe Illustrator program) and Primavera. The sheer size, beauty and symbolism of these paintings will have you awestruck. The Accademia had the sculpture of David which was huge and had a great amount of detail. Overall the city is full of priceless art, amazing food and shopping. Its very easy to get around on foot or bus.
After Florence, we headed for Venice. I thought that our cab ride from the station to the hotel was adventurous...the driver was weaving through the traffic, going at 140 km/hr, and sometimes switching two or three lanes on the highway when there were cars right behind or in front. It was remarkable how we did not have an accident even though he was going at really high speeds, when there was not enough room between him and the car in front of him. Kart says that we have to thank European suspensions for that! Regardless, he got us to our hotel in very good time. The major highlight of our Venice trip was how much we walked around, the amount of gelato we ate and how much we explored the Venitian islands. We also had a great time looking at the different and very artistic Venitian masks. Shopping, btw, was great in Venice! And the Gondola ride is not worth it!! The canal is dirty and the Gondoliers don't even sing....waste of 45 minutes of your time! We luckily managed to escape this major touristy time pass for most people who visit Venice, and managed to enjoy and exploring the interiors of islands like San Marco, Santa Croce, San Polo, Cannaregio and even Castello. Piazza San Marco was extremely beautiful and so was the Basilica, which was designed like a Greek church as opposed to the traditional Roman churches, which are in a shape of cross. Its amazing to see the pigeons at the piazza and seems like a scene from a movie.
Our next stop was Paris.....what can we say, we fell in love with the city. The Parisians are not rude...in fact they are extremely helpful! We were looking for our hotel and decided to ask directions from a woman on the street as our last resort. She did not speak English and did not know how to get there, but went inside a florist shop and got directions for us. We thought that that was incredibly sweet of her! Besides everywhere we went, people were friendly and willing to help you out, even if you did not speak French. In Paris, we made most of our two days and visited a number of places ranging from the Arc de Triomphe, Opera House, Concorde, L'Madeline, The Louvre, Luxembourg Gardens, Tuileries, Pantheon and the Eiffel tower. We got to chill at the cafes and have some yummy French desserts (especially Macarons!). One of our highlights of the trip was meet the manager of one of the projects Neha worked on at Britannica, Sebastien. Sebastien showed us a great time in Paris...we had a lot of fun conversation with him about Paris, the French and general way of life in France viz-a-viz the US. The reason we were able to accomplish so much in Paris was because both Sebastien, and two co-workers of Neha's, Thierry and Shawn had given us amazing suggestions on where all to go.
The city we visited last was Rome. By this time we were a little exhausted. We did relax a lot at the cafes in Rome as well...We did not fret about covering everything this time in Rome. Just enjoyed chilling by the Trevi fountain, shopping, eating etc. We did go to the Vatican city, the Colloseum and the Palatine Hill, which were all great.
Overall, we have to say that the trip was very fun and adventurous for us as we did get lost a lot during our explorations of the various cities we were in. However, thats when the maps came in handy, and seldom not. Kart's favorite word throughout the trip was "Dude!" Neha had not seen him use it as much before, and found it funny. Neha would be able to tell a lot of Kart's flatulence stories, but would rather refrain from that!
