On Thursday, we hit the Rome train station bright and early. Our plan was to head back to Florence to meet Ashley, and then the three of us would take a train to Pisa, fly into Gatwick, and take the Tube into London.

Checking out of our hotel in Rome. The elevator barely fit us and our luggage!

High speed train!

Unfortunately, our plans changed a bit when the train from Rome got delayed and we missed our connection in Florence. That left us scrambling for another route to Pisa, and we weren’t sure where Ashley was since our phones didn’t work overseas. Robby figured out that we could get to Pisa in time for our flight if we took two different trains, so that’s what we did.

We made it to the Pisa airport, checked in for our flight, and then wandered around, looking for Ashley. We eventually bumped into her, and discovered that we had been on the same Florence-to-Pisa train! When she saw that our train from Rome was delayed, she decided not to get on the original train, and ended up taking the same detour we did. Eventually, we all got on the flight and made it to London uneventfully.

London was cold and drizzly as we made our way to Victoria station on the train. We didn’t want to walk to our hotel in the rain, so we hailed a classic British taxi!

Taxi!

We were pleasantly surprised to find that our hotel was new, gorgeous, and super modern. Our room had a full kitchen, free gourmet snacks and drinks, and even a washer-dryer! Best of all, Robby found a deal online, so we paid less than half of the standard (super high) room rate.

Our awesome hotel room.

After checking in and resting for a bit, we decided to venture out for dinner and some sightseeing. We found a great little pub and loaded up on burgers, bangers & mash, and beer.

The pub!

Then we made a big walking loop around the West End, from Big Ben and Parliament to Buckingham Palace. We ended up near the London Eye, and on impulse we decided to take a ride. It was scary, but the views were amazing!

Big Ben and Parliament at night.

Boarding the London Eye.

View from the Eye.

View of London from the top of the Eye.

After our late-night “flight” on the London Eye, we headed back to our hotel for some much-needed sleep.

Friday morning, we woke up early, hunted down some coffee and pastries for breakfast, and took the Tube to the Tower of London. We spent several hours exploring the Tower, from the Crown Jewels to the Armory. Robby was especially enthralled!

Robby outside the Tower.

Robby, looking kingly.

View of the Tower Bridge from the walls of the Tower of London.

Robby wearing a replica of a medieval soldier's helmet.

Irish Guardsman outside the Crown Jewels.

My own personal guardsman.

We found a fairly swanky restaurant for lunch, and built up our strength for a trip to Westminster Abbey. We spent some time looking at all the monuments and tombs, then took the Tube up to King’s Cross Station to hunt down platform 9 3/4.

Take me to Hogwarts!

We rounded off our day with a dizzying trip to Topshop (a UK clothing store similar to H&M) before heading back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner. Our plan was to walk toward the Millennium Bridge and St. Paul’s cathedral and find some dinner along the way, but we were soon stopped by a downpour. We took shelter in a pub, which had unfortunately stopped serving real food for the evening. Thus, we ended up having potato chips for dinner before staggering back to our hotel and falling into bed. Sort of a weird way to end our time in London, but the day overall was pretty great–I just wish we had had more time!

Sadly, Robby and I had a pretty early flight back to LA on Saturday morning, so we had to wake up early, pack up our stuff, say our goodbyes to Ashley, and catch the train to Heathrow. Thankfully, our flight back to LA was uneventful (though sooooo long!), and we made it home around 4pm on Saturday (LA time). Lucy was super excited to see us, and we were happy to be home!

Overall, our trip ended well even though it got off to a bad start. I’m still sad that food poisoning prevented me from really experiencing the sights (and food!) of Italy, but I loved, loved, loved seeing London with Robby and Ashley. For me, the highlights of the trip were:

• Our 3 amazing hotel rooms. Robby planned our travel, and he did an awesome job with the accommodations!
• Shopping at the Prada store and getting an amazing wallet. I felt a bit like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.
• Seeing historic sites in Rome.
• My one and only cup of gelato–stracciatella and coffee flavors!
• Getting to ride the high-speed train in Italy.
• Exploring London by night.
• Yummy pub food.
• Seeing the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey.
• Riding the Tube.

There were a few things I wish had gone differently (sickness, obviously, as well as cold, rainy weather and lots of time spent travelling to and from different places), but I guess that means Robby and I will have to go back sometime and see more of Italy and London. I’m definitely ok with that!

Our high-speed train pulled into Rome late Tuesday afternoon, and we struggled to haul our luggage through the narrow, bumpy streets to our hotel. When we arrived, our room unfortunately reeked of cigarette smoke. Robby asked politely if there was another room we could stay in, and the hotel staff stunned us by moving us to the penthouse suite, which came complete with its own private rooftop terrace! Holy cow, the room was awesome (although the mattress was super hard!).

Nice hotel room!

Our sweet rooftop terrace! Unfortunately, rainy weather prevented us from really using it.

After checking out our room (I may have done some excited squealing!), we ventured out to take in the ruins of ancient Rome at sunset and have some pizza. Unfortunately, I think I tried to do too much that day, and had a bit of a meltdown/relapse after dinner.

I had mostly recovered by Wednesday morning, so we started our day with an ambitious walk toward the Vatican. Along the way, we saw the Trevi fountain and the Pantheon:

Robby near the Trevi fountain.

Bad self-portrait by the fountain. I loved all the mythical details!

Pantheon! Crazy that this 2,000 year old building sits right in the middle of a modern city.

Inside of the Pantheon.

Tiny car! This one's for my dad.

When we arrived at St. Peter’s, we were surprised to find that there was a huge event going on, with tens of thousands of people gathered on the plaza.

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

The massive crowds prevented us from seeing the Sistine Chapel (boo!), and it had started to rain, so we ducked into a nice little osteria for some pasta (sadly, it was the only pasta I had our entire time in Italy!). Because of the rain, we headed back to our hotel. We had planned to see the Colosseum that afternoon, but I was so wiped out by everything that I ended up sleeping the rest of the day and into the evening. I wasn’t about to leave Italy without having some gelato, though, so I begged Robby to find some for me, and that’s what I had for dinner.

The next morning (Thursday), we woke up early, ate a bunch of pastries at the hotel’s breakfast bar (yay!), and headed off to the train station to move on to the third and final leg of our European adventure–London!

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything! School and work have really kept me busy this year, but I’m back to document our latest adventure: a trip to Europe.

Robby and I recently returned from an 8-day trip to Italy and the UK. Our purpose was two-fold: we were there both to sightsee and to visit Robby’s sister Ashley, who is studying abroad in Italy this year. Sadly, much of our vacation was marred by a terrible case of food poisoning, but we were able to make some good memories that I plan to document in three posts (one for each city we visited). So, on to part one!

Florence

We left LA on a sunny Friday afternoon, full of anticipation for the amazing trip we had planned.

Getting ready to board the Metro.

Arrivederci, LA!

After taking the Metro and flyaway bus to LAX, we settled in for a long, long overnight flight to London Heathrow. After many hours of TV, movies, and restless attempts at sleep, we landed in London and caught a 1-hour bus to Gatwick airport for a connecting flight to Pisa, Italy.

Made it to London--part 1 of the journey complete!

Waiting for the bus to Gatwick.

Unfortunately, things went off-track on the trip to Gatwick as the nausea began to set in. By the time we got on our flight to Pisa, we were both struck down by food poisoning (I actually had it much worse than Robby, which meant he really had to take charge of getting us to our hotel). By the grace of God, we got through our 2-hour flight to Pisa, followed by a 45-minute wait at baggage claim, a 1-hour wait for our bus, and then a 1-hour bus ride from Pisa to Florence. Thankfully, Ashley was able to meet us at the airport to help us get to the right place! We FINALLY made it to our hotel around 2am on Easter Sunday. Let me just say that 24+ hours of travel with food poisoning made for one of the worst days of my life.

The next day (Easter) passed in a feverish. nauseated haze. Luckily, Robby had recovered enough to venture over to Ashley’s apartment in Florence, and the two of them were my guardian angels. They tracked down Gatorade, toast, soup, and anti-nausea medicine while I holed up in my hotel room (which was actually quite nice!) and slept.

Our hotel room in Florence.

What I did in our hotel room in Florence.

By Monday morning, I felt a tiny bit better, so we attempted to see some of the sights in Florence, starting with the church of Santa Maria del Fiore and the Duomo. We also saw some sculptures and got Robby some pasta.

Inside the Santa Maria del Fiore.

Robby posing by the Hercules statue.

Robby enjoying some gnocchi!

Unfortunately, it was a bit too much for me, and I spent the rest of the day back at the hotel, feeling miserable. Robby and Ashley spent the afternoon and evening exploring Florence.

Robby in front of the Ponte Vecchio.

On Tuesday morning, I felt a bit better, so we headed out to the Accademia to see the David sculpture and do some shopping. While David was suitably awe-inspiring, the real highlight of my day was a visit to the Prada store, where a spent a hard-earned chunk of change on a gorgeous pink wallet. Yay!

Prada store in Firenze!

My precious...

On Tuesday afternoon, Robby and I caught a high-speed train to Rome for part 2 of our European adventure…