What a whirlwind — I began this post this morning from 30,000-something feet on my way back from Italy already.
A few months back, I found a great deal to Milan, since this is their off-season. I’ve actively been trying to travel more, so I hopped right on it. $550 round trip to Italy?! Hell yeah. While I’m a vacation day hoarder and have about 30 vacation days chillin’ in my PTO balance, my friend Daria didn’t have quite as many and so we decided to go for a long weekend.
We took off Thursday night and landed Friday morning. I don’t usually do super well with jet lag and had already felt like I was running on empty from work, dealing with my mom, moving, etc, so I was nervous about landing and either spending all that money to just sleep in Italy or having a total breakdown. Luckily, neither happened.Â
Daria’s a little more familiar with Italy than me and also had a bit more time to plan things, so she had plenty of ideas about what we should do. OH OK.Â
I know people get bored reading long vacation recaps, but I did some fun stuff and took a lot of pics…so, sorry?
We grabbed some lunch and checked into the hotel and SHOWERED (best showers of our lives after traveling overnight) and headed for the Duomo. One of my coworkers had suggested getting up to the roof, so I lobbied for that.
We walked through the Galleria Vittorio (a gorgeous high-end shopping area) to get there, and oh, hello Versace.Â
Italy, why you gotta be so ugly?
No, but really…
Yeah, so, it didn’t really disappoint.
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I chose not to lug my D-SLR, and this was the only part of the trip I regretted it for not being able to get really sharp, crisp photos.
Roarr…
Oh, and then we went to the Armani hotel and pretended like we were cool.
Did I really not take photos of dinner? We went to a place called Dry, and it was anything but. Italy, I like how you pour wine.
Have you ever been to Italy? Fave place? Or fave place in Europe?
Where did you find your flight deal? Since I got back from vacation … oh ya know on Saturday … I need to plan the next one ASAP!
So, I actually saw someone post it on FB…but it was on Alitalia. http://www.theflightdeal.com/ is a site I see people share awesome deals from a lot — they could be good to follow on FB/Twitter.
Never apologise for sharing travel stories / photos, they are my favourite! I love Italy.
I love travel recaps! I don’t always take my DSLR on trips and it’s just another part of the adventure to make the best of the camera you have. Can’t wait to see and hear more about your trip.
I love Italy! My brother in law lives in Marche with his wife and our adorable Irish Italian nephews, and we love visiting them.
There are people who hate travel blogs?! What the heck is wrong with them?! I love travel blogs and just wish this post was longer. Glad you had a great trip!
How fun!!!
If you can believe it, Florence was actually my least favorite city on my trip to Italy! It was lovely, but for me it just didn’t compare to Venice (magical) or Sorento (the most beautiful, ever).
My favorite part of Florence was Fiesole, a tiny town in the hills just above the city. You have to take a bus that winds and winds and winds it’s way through the hills and you think you’re going to die about 12 times, but the views are INSANE. If you go back to Italy for longer than a long weekend, make an afternoon of a trip to Fiesole. There’s a little restaurant right at the edge of the hill where you can sit and have a glass of wine and watch the sun set and just love life.