Florence, Rome and Vatican City
Crossing into Italy was pretty amazing and beautiful. We got many hours of gazing at Tuscan countryside as we rode the bus into Florence. Florence was incredible, it was gorgeous, and I loved hearing how much inspiration was taken from it by painters and writers. Definitely a magical place, and I had my first pizza (in Italy) there!
After touring Florence for two days we went on another amazing scenic bus ride to Rome, and we saw the Colosseum, the famous statue of David and Vatican City. First - The Colosseum, it was an amazing, crazy, inexplicable feeling to go there. To think about the millions of feet that have walked on that stone, and all the hands pressed against the walls. Thousands of years of history are preserved right there, next to cars and sidewalks and cell phones. It’s just extraordinary. I spent most of my time just sitting on some steps, taking it all in. 
Next day we saw the statue of David, at first it wasn’t a big deal to me, I’m not much of an art buff, but I wanted to see it anyway of course because it is so famous. It is fucking incredible, Michelangelo was such a genius, I have no words. Just make sure you see it if you get a chance because the detail will blow your mind. It’s amazing, and I spent probably a half hour looking at it. I didn’t take the photo below, there were absolutely NO photos allowed, the security guards were on that shit.
Our last visit was to Vatican City, the highlights were The Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. St. Peter’s Basilica was amazing amazing amazing, I took tons of pictures, and I’ll post some in this post and some separately. The Sistine Chapel was beautiful, but it was pretty dark and there was scaffolding everywhere and plastic and stuff, I didn’t really know what was going on, but it was also packed. I’m glad I went, but I don’t know if I would do it again.
St. Peter’s Basilica
We also went to the Trevi fountain!
Nice, Eze and Monaco
So after Paris we took a night train to Nice. It was beautiful! The countryside was absolutely stunning, there is nothing that can get those amazing images out of my head. Nice… Is my favorite place ever. I can’t explain it, I loved it there. Unfortunately my camera broke during the last day in Paris, so I just have a few shitty pictures I took from my ipod. But I felt really at home there, our tour guide was all like “Ohh, this is old people town, derderder”, whatever. It was beautiful and amazing and I feel like I was born to live there. Now I am going on this psycho hunt looking for language schools near Nice, job opportunities, etc. (If anyone thinks they could help me with that, that would be fantastic.)
After a day of messing around in Nice, we took a day trip to Eze and Monaco, both beautiful places.
Eze
Monaco
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see Grace Kelly’s grave because the church was closed for a few weddings they were having that day.
This is me and Christophe. He works at the hotel we stayed at in Nice, and his dad owns it. My mom wants me to write him at the hotel and have him find a job for me there, so I’ll have one when I move there… If I even do. Anyway, he was a sweetie and ridiculously good looking, but unfortunately this picture doesn’t do his looks a lot of justice (and I look like shit). Anyway, I might actually write him, it can’t hurt!
Paris & Versailles
As we were landing in Paris and I got a glimpse of Paris and had to try not to cry. I don’t know why it felt like such a huge deal to me, maybe it was because I was exhausted from the 11 hour flight I got no sleep on, or I was emotional in general from being away from my mom longer than I had been before. Whatever the reason I was basically skipping through the airport and the other kids on the trip seemed a little weirded out by my excitement. We met up with our tour director and guide, Richard, from London, and went to the hotel. My room had a balcony that looked out on the street, which was a beautiful view to me, haha.
The first day we went to L’arc de Triomphe, which was amazing. But I’m a hardcore lazy ass so climbing the stairs to the top just about killed me, but I wasn’t the only one, haha. The view was amazing, but none of the photos I took really did it justice.
After that we walked down the Champs-Élysées, and saw some dancers, we watched their show probably 5 times, we didn’t really have anything better to do, I’ll post a video later. It was kind of amazing just being there in general, it felt so right and exciting, I loved it.
The next day we went to Notre Dame and strolled around some streets and took in some of the city. It’s a stereotype that French men are attractive, but my god IT IS SO TRUE. It was ridiculous, everywhere I turned there was an amazing looking guy, I was just dying.
Notre Dame
French Eye Candy (It looks like they’re in the military?)
Later that night we visited the Eiffel Tower.
The next day we went to Versailles! It was amazing walking through the palace and the gardens and thinking that Marie Antoinette had touched those walls and floors. I almost cried, it was beautiful.
