To introduce myself, I am a girl currently studying abroad in Germany (based in Cologne, Germany), and my boyfriend (now husband) who has been in love for 5 years and in a foreign country for 2 years. During the period of foreign love there were various hiccups, but in the end, for the sake of our love, for the sake of our common future, and so that I can experience the life of western society with him, grow in knowledge and broaden my horizons blabla, then I came to Germany to accompany my studies.
The most important thing is to have a heart that loves life ♥ and an eye for beauty .
I’ve been doing a lot of shopping, buying German products, learning the language, learning to cook, and reading and writing. The most exciting thing for me is to go and see all of the great landscapes of more than a dozen countries in Europe~ In order for me to have more fun, my husband took two extra days off during the Easter holidays to accompany me on a trip to Italy (I should be commended here~)
Let’s get down to business 😄
The trip was a self-organised 6 day, 5 night free trip to Italy for 6 people. We had a travel company plan the itinerary in advance, including the purchase of tickets to and from Cologne and Italy, intercity trains within Italy, and hotel reservations, which cost over 390 Euros per person. The itinerary was: Cologne, Venice – Vatican – Rome – Milan, then back to Cologne for six days and five nights.
It was up to us to decide on the exact route for each city. There were six of us in total, four of whom were responsible for developing a city guide; the other two, my husband and I, were responsible for buying tickets online for some of the sites (e.g. Rome’s Poggio, the Vatican Museums), so that we didn’t have to queue for a long time on site and save some money. (for example, the Last Supper in Milan needs to be booked three months in advance, which shows how popular it is).
There were a few hiccups in the process (which is normal during a trip).
The Vatican Museums were booked a little late and there were no tickets available online, so we had to queue up to buy them on the spot, which we will describe later in the Vatican trip.
A German friend who was travelling with me only brought his German residence permit, not his passport, and the sister who checked his ticket would not let him in. Why did this happen? This friend said that the last time he flew to Switzerland he only had his German residence permit and it went very well, so he thought he could travel between EU countries without a passport, but he didn’t expect to be denied a flight to Italy without one this time. Therefore, passports are very important, don’t lose them or forget them!
First stop: Venice trip
The route of our trip to Venice is Main Island – LIDO Island – Rainbow Island – Glass Island.
The Venice guide was taken care of by a friend with the surname L, so she was in charge of leading the tour.
We took a Ryanair flight from Cologne-Bonn airport to Venice Treviso airport, arriving at the airport around 1:30pm, as soon as we got off the plane we saw it was raining outside, we took out the umbrellas we had with us and it was a perfect solution to the problem of getting wet. I bought a bus ticket from the airport to the main bus station in Lucia on the main island (12 euros per person). The journey took about 40 minutes and once we arrived at the Lucia bus terminal, we walked along the river via Google Maps and browsed the old looking shops along the river, with handmade bags, handmade masks and many souvenir shops (the famous Venice Carnival, the famous Venice Mask Festival).
We bought a Venice 24h pass (€20) from the shop next to us, which allows us to take multiple bus and boat trips within 24h, a great saving.
We then found the pier on the main island and took a boat down the canal all the way to St Mark’s Square. Most of the main attractions on the main island are around Piazza San Marco, the more famous ones being Piazza San Marco, St Mark’s Church, the Doge’s Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, the Bell Tower, the Venice Museum and many more. There is the Ponte Liato, roughly between the main island railway station and Piazza San Marco.
It was 4.30 pm when we arrived at Piazza San Marco and the church was no longer allowed, so we walked around the square and took some pictures.
After St. Mark’s Square, it was still light, so we took a boat to LIDO Island, which is basically famous for the film festival, but the island is relatively modern and not much to see. But we went to the beach on LIDO Island, known as “Europe’s Hawaii”, and we were not disappointed when we arrived. The day was cloudy with occasional rain showers, the beach was very windy, relatively few people, we picked up shells on the beach, throwing stones, very happy.
When we left the beach of Lido Island, we were already very tired, so we took the boat back to the main island near St. Mark’s Square and searched on Google to find a Chinese buffet restaurant with a good rating to eat, 20 euros a person, the taste is not bad, but does not include drinks, you have to order drinks separately, a small glass of water costs 2 euros.
After dinner we left the main island of Venice by car and returned to the Hotel Venezia near the inland mestre train station (3 star, average conditions, but breakfast was provided), thus ending our first day of travel.
The next day we went to the other two famous islands attached to Venice, the Glass Island and the Coloured Island. The Coloured Islands are a bit further away, so we took a boat to the Coloured Islands first, where each house is a different colour and very beautiful, and the island is famous for its lace.
After the Coloured Island, we went on to the Glass Island, where you can see a traditional Venetian glass blowing show and the whole island is full of shops selling glassware.
Glassware on the island
After the glass island, we went back to the main island and had lunch at an Italian restaurant near St Mark’s Square on the main island. Jon. Maybe it’s really a thousand layers so it’s like a mush, Jon. But the thing that stood out to me was the Italian waiters, they were super showy and had a lot of body language (of course they were there for the tips too 😳)
Lasagna at the Italian restaurant
After dinner, we rushed back to the inland mestre train station and then took a five hour train ride to Rome’s Termini station, which was already 8.30pm.
