Bonjourno! This past Monday I arrived in Italy! (I liked it so
much more than Greece.) I traveled to 5 different cities in 5 days and
there was so much history in all of those cities. We docked at 8am in
Civitivecchia and by 8:30 we were already on a bus headed towards Rome.
We signed for a Highlights of Rom tour to basically see all of Rome in
one day.
We
also got to walk into the Sistine chapel which was amazing. There were
so many people in there and all the police kept on yelling at us to not
take photos, oops. Later that day I went to the ancient Coliseum on the
other side of Rome. This is where the gladiators would fight each other
for sport to entertain the rich. The coolest part about this was that I
got to enter the Coliseum like I was a gladiator and run down the long
tunnel towards the middle of the realm. 
The next day I went to the ancient city of Pompeii, just south of
Naples, Italy. Long story short, during the first century a volcano
exploded and was covered in 13ft.-20ft. of volcanic ash and pumice.
Since it was so tightly compacted together, air and moisture could not
penetrate it and so that is how the city was so well preserved. It was
way bigger than I thought it was going to be and we were there for
hours! We even got to see the casting of one of the people who died during it. 
Our plan after that was to eventually end up in Florence but with the way the train systems were set up we had to stay the night in Rome again and took a train the next morning and let me just say, Florence is my favorite city ever. I honestly could see myself living there. The first thing we did when we got there was go to this pizza place called Gustas. And let me say, me gusta Gustas. Hands down the best pizza I’ve ever had. Aftwards we went back to our Airbnb and then immediately went to walk around in the city. We visited the infamous statue of David and got to see the outside of the Duomo!
I had a friend who had been there previously and took us to this lookout spot where we could see the whole city of Florence and it was such a great view!
The
night life is also really cool! With 550 of my shipmates all in the
same place we always run into each other and have a great time! Someone
of the Betas on this trip had been to Florence earlier on in the year
and hung up a flag, so they brought me back to it and had me sign it! 
Day 4 was definitely one for the books. We ventured out for about an hour into the countryside of central Tuscany and went wine tasting. We went to a family owned vineyard where our guide showed us around and gave us the history behind his wine and Chianti region. And yes, cheese and salami was served.
We
also sampled his homemade balsamic vinegar and I knew I had to buy a
bottle and send it home (you’re welcome mom and dad). Words cannot
express how good this stuff was. And along with the delicious view, we
ended the tour with a view of his vineyard. 
My last day I ended up at the leaning tower of Pisa, because if we are being real you didn’t go to Italy if you don’t visit the tower. Getting there was super stressful because some of the the trains went on strike but we made it! Honestly if the town of Pisa didn’t have the tower I don’t think anyone would go visit it, but it’s a neat little city. Also, I think I might have taken the photo wrong.
Also, for those of you who missed it, SAS was featured on Snapchats live story for a full 24 hours. But more importantly I was featured on it! So you can say you know a celebrity now because 20-30 million saw me. 😏
Overall, Italy was awesome. It was filled with unlimited pizza, pasta, and gelato. If you haven’t been before you definitely need to go and if you have already been before then definitely go back.
For more pictures go check out my Facebook! And if you wanna contact me then download the app “WhatsApp” or email me at: andrew.santiago.fa16@semesteratsea.org
Next stop—-> Barcelona, Spain💯
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Don't miss the boat!
Read more from Jordan at https://suitelifeofsanti.wordpress.com/
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