Countdown to Italy!

It feels as if classes have just started up again and, already, our first break is days away! When it comes to their vacation time, the French don't mess around.  Now that one of my best friends is also studying abroad in nearby Aix-en-Provence, I finally have a travel companion to take some trips with that have been a long time coming.  For this break, we decided to go to Italy and what a trip it will be...

We are planning on flying out of Marseille (where there are lots of lowcost airlines) into Rome.  After trying to cram in all that ancient history and art into three days, we are (hopefully) going to take the train to Naples.  I say hopefully because neither of us speak a word of Italian, and the trains are apparently less reliable than in other parts of Europe...fingers crossed.  Anyway, we'll be staying three nights in Naples so that we can fit in a day trip to Pompeii.  The more people I tell this to, the more I am starting to worry, because apparently there are some safety concerns in that particular area of Italy??  Hopefully we won't have too many run-ins with the Italian mafia, but you never know I guess.  From Naples, we are going to head all the way up to Florence for a couple days before finishing our whirlwind tour in Venice.  We originally wanted to spend two nights in Venice, but once we realized just how expensive even the most modest hostels are there, we changed our plan to just one night.  We then found out that due to the Venice Carnival, prices to stay even just one night in the city were out of our budget.  Our tentative plan is currently to take an overnight(ish) train from Florence that would arrive in Venice at around 5:30 am on the day we will be flying out of Italy...at least there won't be many people walking around?? Scratch that, there will probably be a significant number of people on their way home from the previous night.  So that is the plan, but it is by no means set in stone, so it will be interesting to see what happens...

Preparing for this trip has been exciting, frustrating, and amusing.  Exciting, because it will be my first time seeing some historic cities in Italy that I didn't have the chance to see the last time I was there with my family in Florence (6 years ago, I might add).  Frustrating, because, well, planning trips always is, when you factor in all the little problems you come across (finding a reasonably priced place to stay in Venice during the Carnival, for example).  Most of all though, I had so much fun just talking to different people here, hearing their opinions on what to do, where to go, etc.  I had mentioned my vacation plans in passing to some people I work with at the radio station, and this morning was presented with a handful of maps and guidebooks as well as an in-depth, two hour explanation by an Italian native of what I should be sure to see in Rome alone.  Later today at home, Michèle shared her advice with me over her lunch break.  In giving her opinion on something, which I can be sure she will do, she does not hesitate to tell me how she really feels, good or bad.  I've grown accustomed to it now, but this blunt, straightforward approach really did catch me and my Midwestern upbringing off guard at first! So I sat there nodding as Michèle proceeded to tell me what I should absolutely see and what I could skip, based on a pretty thorough, 15 day trip she took to Rome last year.  As is the case with almost anything I need, she generously offered to lend me her guidebook of the city.  I told her I picked up a few from the program office but when I showed him to her, she dismissed them with a wave of her hand.  There are times when I miss a little "Minnesota nice," but for the most part I appreciate the honesty, because it's helpful. 

This trip to Italy will be the first one out of the country (besides my trip to Barcelona where I stayed with friends of the family) with absolutely zero knowledge of the language.  There are times, even here, where figuring out stuff can be next to impossible...should be interesting in Italian! 

I better run but I promise to post more after the trip! Ciao!