3 CITIES THAT MADE ME FALL-IN-LOVE TO ITALY

Amare / Forelsket:

(n) the euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.

I think it’s in everyone’s bucket list to travel to europe (probably with an exception to europeans Lol!). And it’s only a matter of time and having sufficient resources to materialize that goal. As for me, i took that decision three years ago and decided to include Italy in my itinerary.

As I remember my history classes back in high school beginning from Philippine history as freshman, Asian history as sophomore, European history as junior and World History as senior (if my memory serves me well.) European history was my favorite back then and was one of my motivation due to the fact that most of the ruins of the past is preserved up till now in those regions of the world.

I can recall having this conversation to myself that i would see those places when i’m able to and so did i. So here’s the 3 cities that made me fall in love to Italy and made me a wanderlust that makes wanna go back sometime soon.

The Colosseum

1.) Rome – Sam Cooke sang the song “Rome wasn’t built in a day” which was true enough, it wasn’t. As any place as important as this living remains of what i consider as one of the most important part of Europe’s history, seeing what is left of the Colosseum which arguably one of Rome’s most famous and iconic monuments as well as it is one of the Roman world’s biggest amphitheatres at the time not to mention is one of the city’s most visited attractions (thanks wiki), i caught myself in awe seeing it in flesh and was overwhelmed with it’s view right next to The Forum and Arch of Constantine. It’s like anywhere i looked was a piece of precious history.

Rome was overwhelming indeed, from throwing a coin and secretly making a wish at the Trevi Fountain,

Trevi Fountain

walking the stretch of the bridge to Castel Sant’Angelo

view from the bridge of Castel ‘Sant Angelo

to just purely sitting on the spanish Steps just to name a few was more than enough for anyone to be captivated by this city including myself. And to top it all up and tasting the cherry on top, Vatican City is also there waiting to be visited. As we all know, Vaticano is a walled enclave within the city of Rome, which is the smallest internationally recognized independent state in the world by both area and population. It sure was a pleasure for me as a Catholic. As unintentional as it was, i found myself in Vatican City on an Ash Wednesday and managed to get an invite from one of the Swiss Guards the day before to get to attend the Papal Mass.
The three days i spent in Rome felt like wasnt enough but more than enough for me to fall in love with it and to save another time to explore those that i failed to see.

Florence , Italy

2.) Florence – From Roma Termini, i went straight to Stazione Santa Maria Novella via TrenItalia to continue my journey in Italy. And Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and could probably one of my favorites possibly for 2 things:

The Mall

a.) The Mall: which invigorates my love for fashion that houses most of the powerhouse brands in Italy like GUCCI, Prada, Balenciaga, Tods, Marni, Fendi and many more and

b.) The Statue of David: a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504, by Michelangelo. It was moved to the Galleria dell’Accademia in 1873 to protect it from damage and a replica of David now stands outside Palazzo della Signoria now known as the Palazzo Vecchio. As for me, of course i went inside the Galleria dell’Accademia and admired the proportions of Michealangelo’s marble statue which is approximately 14 feet/more or less 5.5 meters in height.

One must not skip Florence for that matter if you plan to visit Italy as it’s just also 45mins – 1hr away by train to Pisa and i did a half day trip to see the Leaning Tower. (Will post another blog for that)

View from San Marco Polo

3.) Venice – After spending 2 days in Florece, i took another train to see the “The Floating City” Venice, and boy was i amazed with the marshy Venetian Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline, between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers? You bet. Seeing it from the James Bond movie Casino Royale back in 2006 was one thing and seeing it in person is a whole new story. It has its own charm that you can’t resist to feel happy about and possibly fall-in love with this group of small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges. In my opinion, that’s simply the reason why it’s so special, cause it’s not something i see everday (at least to where i live) where there’s cars and land transport everywhere but gondolas, boats and other water transports instead. And people mostly travel by foot that’s why it’s inevitable that you literally get lost as what happened to me.

I hope i inspired you to go to Italy and i hope you will start saving to materialize that life-long
plan in your head. If you have questions or tips i havent mention and you’d like to ask, Tell on the comments below, Or If you’ve been to Italy, tell me what are your favorite cities.

Ciao,

7:AM