Day 1- Venice
Venice is definitely my favorite city I have been to on my trip so far. I love that everything is surrounded by water, boats are basically the only form of transportation, and the buildings are so bright and pretty. My parents landed at 11 am and they were waiting for me when I got off my train around noon. We ate at a nice place for lunch right on the water near the train station and ordered the typical (and delicious) caprese salad, pizza, and seafood pasta. We rode a vaporetto (like a hop-on-hop-off water taxi) that took us to different islands and places in Venice. We got to go through some of the canals and see all of the pretty buildings on the water and the boats all around us. We got off at Murano which is an island known for their glass blowing and got to see an actual glass blowing demonstration as well as looking in all of the little shops filled with glass blowing items! (Sorry for saying glass blowing so many times in that last sentence... and sorry for saying it again.) We went back on the vaporetto and made it to St. Mark's Square and saw the large and impressive buildings with beautiful architecture and designs. After a long day of travel for them, we went to the train station to headed back to Forli.
Day 2- Ravenna & Softball
Ravenna is a city near Forli that is known for their mosaics. On Saturday morning we hopped on a train and walked around the beautiful city of Ravenna for a couple of hours. We went inside a church with mosaics everywhere (even the floor!) and there were lots of little shops that had cute mosaic stuff too. I definitely have found a new appreciation for mosaics... as well as this lesser-known city of Ravenna!
That night we won both of our home games against Parma and my parents were there to watch me hit a homerun!
Day 3 & Day 4- Pisa & Cinque Terre
We started off this Sunday by heading to the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. Because it was Mother's Day, I felt it was appropriate to get a picture of my mom and me with the Leaning Tower. Unfortunately, this meant that my dad was the photographer by default. This wouldn't have been that big of an issue if it wasn't important to take the cliche picture of pushing the leaning tower. That first picture took at least 15 minutes to take as well as at least 15 different yoga poses my dad did as he tried to get the perfect angle. (I hope he doesn't get too upset when he sees the imperfections in this picture.)
Cinque Terre translates to Five Villages and is known for their colorful buildings on the water and their hikes around the villages. When we got there from Pisa and checked into our hotel, I immediately fell in love. The first picture shows our view from the hotel balcony... all of the colorful houses on the hill are so pretty! We took a train to one of the villages and walked around for a little until taking a train to the next village where we had dinner on the hill with a view of the water and houses. The next day we went to a third village and did a 2 1/2 hour hike to the next village! (It was very difficult and I am sure my dad will explain about their accomplishments of the hike when he writes his post.) It was a really pretty hike with great views and worth all of the hills and steps we walked up. We ended up making it to the fifth village that day as well. We were there less than 2 days and were able to see and enjoy all 5 villages. (My mom was the only one who could actually remember the which village was which... even though she couldn't pronounce any of them.)
Day 5- Softball in Forli
Because my games against Collecchio got rained out a few weeks before, it got rescheduled to this Tuesday. After my parents were able to rearrange their plans, they were happy they got to see another set of games. They weren't so happy on Tuesday though because it was raining. Our make up game almost got rained out! Luckily it stopped raining just in time to play our games. Both were both close games and we won the first and lost the second.
Day 6- Rome
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| Trevi Fountain |
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| Colosseum |
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| Palatine Hill |
Because we had games on Tuesday, our coach gave us Wednesday off so I got to go on an unexpected trip to Rome! They had already planned on going to Rome for several days and it was nice to join them on their first day. We started off by going on a hop-on-hop-off tour bus where we sat on the upper level on a beautiful day and got to see all the major sites from the bus. We made it to Trevi Fountain and tossed a coin into the fountain and then went inside the Colosseum. From there we went over to Palatine Hill and saw some more ruins. They already had plans to go on a food and wine tasting tour and it was too late to add me in, so I took a train back to Forli that evening. I know that everybody is going to tell me that spending one day in Rome is not enough time, but I did get a little taste of it. The ruins were very impressive but I think I would have appreciated it more if I learned more about the history behind it all. Luckily I am here all summer and maybe I will try and get in touch with my history side and visit Rome again.
I haven't been with my parents since Wednesday so they have had some extra days of traveling without me to other cool places here. They have been texting me in the evenings telling me about the great days they have had... especially the food! They are coming to my games in Caserta (near Naples) on Saturday night and leave to return home to San Diego on Sunday morning.
Be on the look out for a more detailed blog post from my parents about their entire trip sometime next week!
My parents being here definitely had an impact on this gelato tracker... +6
GELATO
TRACKER
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