Italy in five words...

In Canada, the universities have reading week, and in Copenhagen my university also has a week holiday (March 1-March 5). I decided to extend my holiday a little bit and missed a class on Wednesday February 24, and a class on Monday March 8, in order to go to Italy for 12 days.

I went with my friend Daria, from Russia. Since there was just the two of us, we decided to try something a little bit different: couchsurfing. Basically it is an opportunity to stay (for free) with people who actually live in the city that you are going to. It is a great way to experience the city like a local and really learn about the place you are visiting. You sign up online and then can search others profiles in the city that you want to go to, and when you find someone you like, you write to them and ask if you can stay with them and they say yes or no!

We flew into Milano and were picked up at the airport by my sister's husband's mother's cousin - so my relative (kind of) and stayed at his bar-turned-house in Soriso (an hour outside of Milano). On the 28th we went to Mestre (just outside of Venice) where we spent two nights and had our very first couchsurfing experience. On March 2nd we went to Pisa, and then early on the 4th we went to Florence for the day and made it to Rome by midnight to catch the last bus of the night! We stayed with two hosts in Rome, each for two nights.

Italy is a beautiful country! I definitely want to go back and visit the friends that I made and to see everything again. I loved everything about Italy: the food, the people, the climate, the landscape, the music, the wine!! Daria and I decided that if we could describe our trip in five words this would be it:

1. Eating: the food was amazing! We ate gelato, pizza, panzerotti, bread and cheese, pasta, risotto, lasagna, sea food, cakes and cookies, more pasta, more pizza, more gelato. We also drank wine, coffee, cappuccino, espresso! And our hosts gave us some great recipes to bring back to Denmark.

Daria and I eating gelato outside of Milan

Nico (my host in Rome), his housemate Marco, and me eating home made panzerotti's

2. Climbing: we climbed to the top of something in every city that we went to! In Milan to the top of the Duomo; in Venice to the top of Campanile di San Marco; in Pisa to the top of the Leaning Tower; in Florence to the top of the Campanile di Giotto; and in Rome we climbed Pincian Hill and Castel Sant'Angelo.

Florence

Italy from the top of Castel Sant'Angelo

3. Missing trains: we decided to travel through Italy via regional trains. Since they were regional (ie. cheap) they were never direct. So from Milan to Venice we got on the wrong train, from Venice (to Bologna to Prato to Florence) to Pisa we took a train in the wrong direction (only one stop) and then missed our train in Bologna. We actually caught our train to Florence, but from Florence to Rome we missed our train by 10 minutes and had to wait 2 hours for the next one. And finally from Rome to the airport we stood in front of our train as the train officer refused to open the door and thus we missed yet another train.

Daria and our Venecian host Marco wondering how we took the wrong train

4. Laughing: two girls travelling through northern Italy - enough said!

5. Couchsurfing: it was my first time couchsurfing but I LOVED it!! I met some amazing people and had some great experiences doing things that I otherwise would have never done!