Introduction

After a few months doing activities for the trip: a long walk, clean cars and sell chestnuts: we finally could go to Italy!

Sunday, 29th March 2009

At five o'clock we left Gironella. At half past seven, we arrived at La Jonquera and we stopped to fill up with gasoline. At about eleven o'clock we stopped at a service station to have dinner. Then we went up the bus and spent the night there.

Monday, 30th March 2009

We arrived in Sirmione and stopped in Lake Garda: the largest lake in Italy. It is located in Northern Italy, about half-way between Venice and Milan. Later we had lunch at Erica’s restaurant; we had a really big pizza and a chocolate ice cream. Then we visited the village. At half past four, we caught the bus to Verona; we visited the amphitheatre and Juliet’s house (from Romeo and Juliet). At ten o’clock, we finally arrived at the hotel in Lido de Jesolo, called Margherita. First we chose our bedrooms, we had dinner, then we went to bed.

Tuesday, 31th March 2009

We had breakfast at the hotel and we went to catch the vaporetto. We spend all the day in Venice. We visited the St. Marcos Square and Ducal Palace: a gothic palace in Venice. In Italian it is called the Palazzo Ducale di Venezia. The palace was the residence of the Duke of Venice. Aprt from being the Duke's residence, the palace housed political institutions of the Republic of Venice until the Napoleonic occupation of the city. We could see the famous Bridge of Sighs (Italian: Ponte dei Sospiri) it is one of many bridges in Venice. The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. The view from the "Bridge of Sighs" was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. A local legend says that lovers will be assured eternal love if they kiss on a gondola at sunset under the bridge.

We had lunch in Taberna dei Dogi. Then, we had all the afternoon free and we could walk around Venice and buy souvenirs. Some people went on a gondola but it was so expensive. We returned to the hotel for dinner and then we went to the disco. It was a fantastic day!

Wednesday, 1st April 2009

Good morning!

We got up at seven o’clock and we put our luggage on the bus and then we had breakfast. At half past eight we went to Siena where we had lunch and visited the city. That day was so rainy that some people had to buy an umbrella. When we finished the visit, we went to Montecatini in a hotel called Domingo. We had dinner. Our plan was to go out for walk around Montecatini but it still rained and we played games in the hotel all together.

Thursday, 2nd April 2009

After breakfast we went to Florence. We spent the entire day visiting the city because it’s so big and there are many important monuments. The most amazing one was the cathedral. In the evening we returned to Montecatini. We had dinner and we went to the disco but that one was very boring because there weren’t many people and we returned early to the hotel.

Friday, 3rd April 2009

We had breakfast and we went to San Gimigniano: a little village of La Toscana. It was very touristic. We had lunch in Pisa and we visited the famous leaning tower. It is situated behind the cathedral and is the third oldest structure in Pisa. The height of the tower is 55.86 m from the ground on the lowest side and 56.70 m on the highest side. The tower leaned at an angle of 5.5 degrees, but after the restoration works between 1990 and 2001 it only leans at an angle of 3.99 degrees. When we finished our visit, we went to Genova to catch the ship back to Catalonia. We had dinner and we slept on the ship. Some people spent most of the night playing poker.