I took a 10 day Italy tour with the rotary in belgium. It lasted from the 2nd of April to the 10th, with a lot of the time on a bus.

We left at 10:45am from Liege on the 2nd and arrived in Rome the next day at 9am. We walked around Rome until 1pm before lunch. After lunch we did a group tour of the Colosseum around 3:30. By the end of the day, all our feet were in a lot of pain from the constant walking.

The next day (the 4th) we spent more hours walking around Roma, seeing famous sculptures. There was also a violin street performer who was really popular with our group, that people even started to dance. After the walking, we had lunch and then began to go on a tour around the Vatican Museum where we used headphones to hear the guide. The museum was way too crowded to take many photos. At the end of the tour we entered the Vatican, which was something really amazing and I am so glad I got the chance to see it.

On the 5th of April, we visited a palace in Italy that had an amazing fountain. The tour around the Palace wasn’t exciting but it was a wonderful fountain to see and I’m lucky to have seen it because otherwise I would’ve never gone. We really didn’t do much else that day as we were on the bus heading to our next destination, Naples.

Friday the 6th of April we had to leave early in the morning (7:30am) and we got to Sorrento at 8:30 and was given free time to wander around, as long as we were back at the bus before 10:00. At 10, we continued on our tour around the surrounding areas but our bus broke down, going up a hill, for an hour. At 11:40, 1 hour after the bus broke down, we changed to a different one and continued our trip. We drove around the mountains next to the ocean which gave an amazing view. Lunch was at Amalfi and then we headed to Ravello before returning to the hotel in the evening.

On the 7th (the 6th day of the trip), we took a boat to Capri. It was a hot day and a lot of us were in shorts. We took a boat tour around the island where we saw heaps of caves and other natural sculptures caused by the sea. We then took a bus up to a small town in Capri to have lunch before taking a chair lift to the peak of a mountain. A lot of people were scared by the constant bumping of the chair lift but it was okay because of the great sights we got to see. We then all returned to the bus area where groups were divide into two, one group would go to the beach while the other would go to town. My group decided to go to town, only about 10 of us went, while the rest of the 80 odd students went to the beach to swim. The sand in Italy is nothing like Australian sand so personally I didn’t want to go.

On the 8th, we visited Pompeii which is my favourite place. There was a 2 hour long tour over the rough gravel left because of the ruins. It really is hard to describe exactly what I saw besides it was a bunch of ruins or bodies. We ended the day by taking the bus from 11:30 to 7ish to our next hotel.

The 9th of April (Day 8) wasn’t that exciting. Honestly I can’t even remember the names of the 2 islands we visited, but I know they make a lot of glass sculptures… a lot. However we didn’t really see or do much besides watch a horse get made and look at a bunch of different sculptures.

Finally the 10th, the final day of our Italy trip. We got up early once again to pack our bags and get ready for a whole day in Venice! We arrived at Venice about 10am and spent the first 2 hours walking around the place. At lunch we all split up to find a place to eat but honestly the whole place was super expensive. We then did our own thing to about 3:30pm because that was the time for our 30 minute boat trip! We travelled in groups of 5 in the water around the city, the water was pretty dirty because of all the tourist throwing trash in it but still fun. We then had until 5:30pm of more freetime before we ate our dinner at Hard Rock Cafe Venice, the food was bad but the drinks were really good as I had the Mango Tango with red bull instead of alcohol. After dinner was 1 more hour of free time before we returned to mainland and then got in the bus for our 16ish hour bus trip back to Belgium!

Most of the trip really was walking around to places I didn’t really care much about and on the bus, however I made great new friends and enjoyed myself talking to them overall! It was a great trip and I can’t wait for the next one!

On the Friday (the 13th) after we returned (we returned to Belgium on a Thursday), I changed to my second host family. Also one week after changing families is the 3 month mark of my Exchange! Friday the 20th of April!