I Went to Italy
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I went to Italy for 10 days in September, because my beautiful friend Michele was getting married up in the Dolomites.
This was my first time out of the country in 11 years, and my first time back in Europe in 17 years.
I'd been to Italy twice before, on short weekend trips when I was living in Madrid, but I'd never done a trip like this one, where I cram in as much as I possibly can into 10 days.
It was absolutely beautiful and slightly overwhelming to my nervous system, as I'm used to living a very slow and quiet life.
The first place I went was Venice — I took a waterbus from the airport, which was fun. It was an exciting way to enter the city, especially because I've been obsessed with boats since I was a little kid.
The whole time I was in Venice, I kept on thinking "what the heck happened to humanity? Why do we no longer care about beauty in the things we build?" I mean, everything there was so beautifully designed, and when you look around at the average modern city, or suburb, it appears that humans no longer care about what things look like. Everything is all about function and convenience. Design is boring, sometimes downright ugly, and very likely as cheap as possible. It makes me wonder what that's doing to our brains?
And maybe Venice wouldn't be so insanely overcrowded with tourists if all towns and cities put more effort into making things more than just functional.
After Venice, I took a road trip with Michele's cousin up to the Dolomites. I was supposed to take the train, but she was driving alone and offered to take me with her, so I accepted. I'm so glad I took the car ride, because I was able to see so much more, and we were able to make stops along the way, to take some nicer photos and footage, instead of just the quick driving shots I got with my iphone.
I was pretty blown away by the beauty up in the Dolomites. I didn't know they existed until Michele told me she was getting married there, so I didn't really know what to expect.
I arrived at the bed and breakfast I was staying in pretty late, so I didn't know what the view out back looked like until morning.
What a way to wake up! I could listen to those sheep bells all day long. It's just the most peaceful sound.
The main focus of our time up in the Dolomites was the wedding, so we didn’t do any hiking or biking, which is what most everyone else seemed to be doing up there. But even just being up in those mountains was gorgeous. Beauty everywhere you looked.
I took a very crowded hour-long bus to the train station, and then from the train station I traveled to Florence where I was to stay for just one night. And it was a beautiful night.
The next day I took two more trains to Vernazza, in Cinque Terre. At this point, I was pretty burned out from all the traveling around and socializing I’d done, so I scrapped all of my plans to travel to all the different Cinque Terre villages, and I stayed in Vernazza. I swam every single day, sometimes multiple times a day and just took in the sights of this beautiful city and the epic view from my Airbnb.
Finally it was time for me to head to Milan, just to stay the night, and catch my flight back home the next day. I decided to take a very very brief tour of the city, when I arrived, because I was pooped, and then the next day I left for home.
Hi, I’m Kristen!
I envision a world where you and I rediscover what it is to be human, through connection with ourselves, each other and the natural world around us.