Happy Friday, readers. Teen guest blogger, Alyssa Antoci, is here today to tell us all about her European vacation. We love travel here at the Chronicles and hope Alyssa’s post inspires you to dream of faraway places and adventures.
My First European Vacation
By, Alyssa
I started the summer off with a two week European vacation. We first started by flying to Rome, staying one night, and then getting on a huge cruise line called Norwegian Epic. Every day, we arrived in a new port and took an excursion through the cities we visited.
We first arrived in Rome and got to meet up with friends from Los Angeles. The best part of of the evening was hanging out with friends and finding the best gelato place, called Fatamorgano. I have never tasted such amazing ice cream as this.
Our first port was Florence, Italy, which was overcrowded and very hot. I got to see the Duomo and the replica of the Statue of David as well as the outside of Ufizi Gallery. The lines were too long to get in anywhere and we had only a limited amount of time before we had to get back on the boat.
The second port visit was Cannes, France. After being in Italy with very loud people and the craziness of cars, it was much calmer and cleaner.
This was so far was my favorite place and we ate at a restaurant called La Pizza that my dad had eaten at over 30 years ago with his family. The pizza was better than the pizza we had tried in Florence, which was very surprising. The boats docked in Cannes were magnificently enormous and beautiful.
The next port was Palma de Mallorca, Spain. We didn’t know where to go but followed the crowds to an area by the main church, which was filled with small, quaint cobblestone streets, great shopping and more pizza. This was another one of my favorite places thus far.
Next was Barcelona, Spain which featured a lot of the same architecture as Palma de Mallorca, but it was much dirtier, busier, and more crowded. After that, we went to my all time favorite place of my trip called Capri in Italy.
We took a smaller faster boat and when we arrived, we had to take buses to the top of the hill to get to Anacapri and then Capri. That was one of the scariest roads and rides I had ever been on because the roads were very narrow and close to the edge of steep cliffs. We had the best meal and view at a restaurant overlooking the whole bay. The weather was super warm but breezy and we did some more shopping and eating. The streets were cobblestone and filled with shops and cafes.
After we got back to our ship, we had a whole day out to sea and just hung out at the pool. After arriving back to Rome, we stayed there for four days exploring the historical, beautiful city and visiting places like the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps and many amazing restaurants.
We kept trying other gelato places, but never found one as amazing as Fatamorgano. So we kept searching for it and we found that they had six of them all over Rome. One of my most memorable moments was when we first arrived in Rome and were starving.
We walked the streets to find a quaint outdoor cafe with no one there. Then it started to pour and thunder as we sat outside in the heat, but with the rain coming down over us. The food was absolutely amazing and unforgettable. We also had another group of friends from Los Angeles who we met for dinner and walked around Rome together. That was so much fun as well. They were Italian and had Italian relatives, so they took us to a local restaurant where there were no tourists and the food was authentic. The food just kept coming and I learned that’s how the Italians eat. One of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen was in Rome and we sat there just admiring the beautiful statues and marble walls. Although I really missed my animals and home, this trip was truly memorable and a life changing experience.
About Alyssa
Alyssa Antoci is the fourteen-year-old author of an anti-bullying children’s book called The Purple Marble. She speaks regularly in schools as an anti-bullying advocate. She also has a charity called Just a Little Cloth Children’s Charity, where they donate fancy dresses to underprivileged girls, because every young girl deserves to feel beautiful. Follow her on instagram @alyssabantoci.