The first half of my spring break ( or easter break as it is called in Austria) was spent in Italy. It started with an overnight train on Thursday night from Linz to Venice. I was worried about being able to sleep on the train, but my group consisting of Fanni, Marc (a spanish friend), and I lucked out with who was in our compartment.I was worried I would be panicked about my belongings through the night, but our compartment had six seats, and two other seats ended up having two other college kids.So the 5 of the 6 seats were taken and we were all comfortable falling asleep around each other. I had also never traveled on an overnight train before and it was interesting that the seats could pull out from the walls and become a bed of sorts. If the person across from you did the same, it really was rather bed like. It also blocks the isle into the compartment if someone tries to come in or out. I have attached a photo courtesy of the internet that shows the style of seats we had.Where two cushions is one seat, and you can just slide it from an L position next to the wall to down as pictured.
Our train pulled in about an hour late into the station, but we had finally arrived in Venice and we were all really excited. The first thing you see when coming off the train is the grand canal, it was a gorgeous sight, and if I hadn’t been lugging around a suitcase I would have gotten a picture. We got everything back to our hostel, and then were back in the city for a late lunch on our first day.
Impressions of Venice
Just some of the more scenic shots I took. I found Venice to be beautiful, and much different than my 8 year old self remembers it. I remember having to walk on boardwalks erected in St. Mark’s Square and smelly water underneath. This time none of the streets were under water and it was really beautiful. However, the streets are so confusing, there is no grid, and even with Marc and I both being decent with directions, we got turned around on more than one occasion. On the first day we saw a lot of canals, wandered around quite a bit, and saw some churches, however, many of the churches you had to pay to see. Most the time we didn’t pay to go in, but in one particular cheap church, the Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Fanni and I went in. We couldn’t take pictures inside, but I wish we could have it was so disjointed in theme. 
There was one wall which had a huge stark white triangle statue with figures, and then the next piece on the wall was from a baroque style, and then the altar’s had some from the Byzantine era. It was disjointed, but really unique as far as churches go. On our second day, we saw a museum of 18th Venetian life and culture. I had convinced the others to try it, thinking it would have clothes, every day items, and it wouldn’t be an art museum (because none
of us were particularly interested in art). Turns out I was wrong, but we did get to see a rather cool gondola. After the museum we made our way slowly to St. Mark’s Basilica. Now the facade of the building was undergoing restoration so I didn’t get a picture of the church straight on because all you would have seen is scaffolding. Getting inside was free, however, I was really shocked at the inside. I found it dark, and not extremely beautiful, the most impressive thing I noticed was the entire ceiling was tiled in really tiny pieces. I cannot imagine the time it would take.No pictures were allowed inside, but I did get some pictures of some of the other key features of the square. Such as the pillars on one edge where the used to behead people in between. On top of one pillar is a Lion and on top of the other is a St. Theodore another patron saint of the city, I also succeeded in getting a picture of the elusive Marc( who didn’t like getting his photo taken), and a picture of the bell tower.
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- Bell Tower in Mark’s square
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- Venetian Mask
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- Bridge of Sighs
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- Marc
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- Me failing at a picture
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- Me outside a da vinci exhibition
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- da vinci exhibition
Overall, Venice was beautiful, but I was definitely ready to move on to Florence.
Florence
Florence ended up being my favorite of the three cities. The big wide streets, and the grid like lay out of the city was refreshing after the windy tiny walkways in Venice. It was also a nice change in pace that our hostel was right in the center of the city, because in Venice we had a 15 minute bus ride to and from everything. We got in around noon and found our hostel, then just decided to meander through the city that afternoon. The first thing we came upon was the Florence Dome (Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore). I was floored when I first saw this beautiful building. 
It is a mixture of cream, pink, and green designs, and is a really big building. The line was rather long to get into it that afternoon, so we didn’t go inside until the following afternoon. I was thinking that florence’s dome might change my favorite church to have seen from Pezch to Florence, but it didn’t. The inside is actually rather simple as compared with the outside. The most ornate piece is the painting inside the dome itself, 
other than that the walls were whi
te and some of the molding was pretty. I found the atmosphere gave me an incomplete feeling. On the other hand, I am thankful it was not over the top and to ornate. Something else we stumbled upon the first day, but didn’t go inside until the second day was the Pitti Palace. The outside is absolutely ugly, and the inside is not that pretty either, but the gardens were lovely. When inside we saw an exhibition of costumes (no pictures allowed), porcelain, and a wing of the palace just shown to see the paintings and architecture of inside the palace (also no pictures).
The highlight of trip should have been seeing Michael Angelo’s David, and we were planning to do that our second afternoon, however, the museum it was housed in was closed on Mondays. It was a Monday and we therefore did not get to see it. Instead we went to David’s square where a replica of David is in copper, and also to the square in which David was originally erected and placed. David’s square was located on top a hill across the river from the main section of Florence. We were there right before sunset and couldn’t have asked for a better view and a better way to end our time in Florence.
ROMA!
The last and final stop of our trip was Rome. I will not give you details of each day in Rome, just some photos, of things we saw, and my thoughts.
I went to Rome a little over 3 years ago with my dad. I had a wonderful tour of the vatican and therefore elected not to go there. Instead I really wanted to see the Roman Forum and the Colosseum and paid for great guided tours of those two. We also made it a goal to see a lot of the fountains lit up at night throughout the city, which makes awful photos, but is more beautiful than in the day in person. Another fun excursion we had was watching a soccer game, Madrid vs. Barcelona one evening in a pub. Marc being from Barcelona wanted to see it and we found a place we could watch it. So I have now been in a bar during a soccer game in Europe which was on my bucket list as I wanted to experience that atmosphere. Some sections of the bar were way more energetic than others, but every single person was there for the game and not the food. So that was a fun night.
In closing, Rome was fun, but at the end of my time there, I was really ready to travel with my parents. Fanni and Marc had a tendency to sleep in a little and take lazy afternoons which I am just not used to with my parents. We normally get up early and are back right after dinner to enjoy a relaxing night in, but through the day it is go go go.
Some News
It is official I will be coming back on July 1st as I have worked out everything with my classes and don’t have to stay here longer for any exams. I am also excited to say a friend of mine from Charleston is coming to Linz for three days not this week, but the next week and then we are going to Prague together! She was studying in Morocco, but now is traveling all over Europe. I know the post was long, but I am very glad I got it up and done. It took me two hours today to right it and go through my photos, so I am not sure when I will have that much time to do the second half of my spring break in the upcoming week. So until whenever!
Abroad in Austria 