Instead of having a traditional quinceañera for my fifteenth birthday, my family and I decided to go on a trip to Italy for twenty days. Finally the day came that I would cross the Atlantic to visit one of the world’s most beautiful countries. On August 5, 2009, my family and I went to LAX to begin our journey and about 15 hours later, we landed in Bologna, Italy. My family and I were to stay with my cousin in the town of Rimini, which was on the east coast. Her and her husband made us feel very welcome in their two-room apartment, which was just blocks away from the beach. In the evening my cousin took us to the town’s plaza where there were many stores and gelaterias where I ate the best ice cream of my life. From that day on, I had at least one cone of gelato a day during our visit.
Since my cousin worked while her husband stayed at home, the next day he took us to a near town called San Marino, which is considered an independent republic, separated from Italy. This town was on a mountain, which overlooked Rimini and the Mediterranean, and contained three castles that looked as if they grew out of the ground. This was my first time visiting a castle and I was able to go up the tower, which made me feel as if I were in a Disney fairytale.
The next city we went to was Venice, which was about three to four hours away from Rimini. The day started cloudy but the sun eventually came out causing me to change into shorts. We traveled through multiple bridges and extremely small streets and alleys. They all led to the beautiful Piazza San Marco, which contained the even more beautiful St. Mark’s Cathedral that took my breath away with its intricate facade. We also had the chance to go up the tower in the piazza where you can sell of Venice’s islands.
On the 6thday of our trip to Italy, we traveled through train to the magnificent city of Rome. There we stayed in a hotel where the elevator did not work and our room was on the roof of the building. After leaving our bags, we walked through a dirty park filled with bums but led to the great Coliseum that caused me to tear up. I would have never thought I would be in Rome seeing what was in front of me. After seeing the Coliseum, we spent hours in the ruins where many temples used to be. We spent the whole day walking with a map and seeing amazing monuments such as the National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II, Castel Sant’Angelo, the Pantheon, Piazza del Popolo, Piazza Navona, The Spanish Steps, and finally the Trevi Foiuntain that also took my breath away. We ate at a near restaurant where I ate the best ravioli of my life.
The next day, we visited the vatican. Waiting in line to get in to the basilica, a pigeon had pooped on me. Aswe went inside, I was in awe by the Pieta which is one of Michaelangelo’s masterpieces. This church was like none other I had seen in my life. It was humongous and had beautiful sculptures of saints on every corner. Later on during the day, we climbed to the top of the dome. This was the workout of my life and made me nautious but it felt amazing when we got to the top. The nausea did not leave me troughout the day. At the end of the night on our way to see the coliseum by night, I threw up as I was crossing the street. I was not embarrassed nor ashamed but relieved.
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