My Solo Backpacking Trip Through Italy

With Valentine's happening this week, it made me realize how nice it is to have an awesome fiancé  who is willing to go on adventures with me. It also made me think about how much fun you can have traveling on your own. One of my all-time favorite trips was my solo backpacking trip through Italy a few years ago. I was completely by myself, took trains and stayed in hostels - the whole nine yards.

I started in Venice. Coming off the plane and making my way to the hostel was a little nerve-wracking, but I did it! One thing I will say is, Italy is COLD in January. Way colder than Spain and other parts of Europe! I was definitely glad to sit outside and enjoy the boat ride, but I could have really used another layer or two.

I'll go more into the cities another time (or else this post would be ridiculously long), but Venice was beautiful, and my hostel was even on an island! The only downside of that being, I had to take a boat taxi to get anywhere which was quite pricey. But the hostel itself was pretty great. I had so much fun chatting with people from all over the world! Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, Japan, Korea even some from somewhere in Africa (couldn't quite fully understand their accents, but they were nice!). I had done quite a bit of research ahead of time, so I felt safe in this hostel. I'm not much of a partier, but the atmosphere of the hostel was so fun I actually wound up staying down in the bar for quite some time. It was in the bar that I actually got tips on my FAVORITE book store in the entire world, Aqua Alta. Hostels are wonderful places.

Aqua Alta - Venice, Italy

Next up was Florence. Florence was a very special experience. The train ride down was easy, finding my hostel went fine and I was excited to be out exploring! My hostel was not what I expected - I was greeted by name with homemade cookies. The owner of Hostel David Inn Florence is quite the person. Her name is Nadia and it was like your mom was there, but in a cool way. She really helped bring us together and I found myself enthralled with her story. I bonded with my fellow hostel-goers and actually wound up going out for pizza and even attending museums and shopping with a few! It was amazing to meet new people and have adventures together. To this day, I'm still friends with several of them on Facebook. This hostel also had a kitchen which was nice. I opted to cook dinner at the hostel several nights to save some money.

My new friend Carmen and the host Nadia!

My hostel-cooked dinner of Italian pasta and sauce!

While in Florence, I opted to take a day trip out to see the leaning tower of Pisa - it was worth it! While I ended up having to wait around a bit to catch my train back, I shamelessly asked other tourists to take my picture (classic holding up the tower pose etc.) and then relaxed at a nearby cafe who served me what I'm convinced was just a bowl of melted chocolate. DELICIOUS.

Being touristy in Pisa

"Hot Chocolate" - Pisa, Italy

Finally, I ventured onwards to Rome. Once again, spectacular. I liked that the hostel had a kitchen so I could cook my own meals. I also tended to pack my lunch, so I could save some money while in touristy areas. Yet again, I wound up venturing out with fellow travelers whom I met in the hostel. They showed me where the best gelato was and how to avoid paying extra fees at attractions. I even befriended the hostel worker (named "Blue" for her blue hair) who wound up walking me back to the airport when I left. Once again, I made friends.

The BEST gelato!

My favorite reading spot in Rome - on the Spanish Steps!

Even if you aren't the most sociable person, the beauty of a hostel is there is a built in conversation starter - Where are you from? How long are you here? Where are you going next?

Don't be scared to take a leap and venture out on your own. Just be smart and careful when you do. I avoided going out at night (I'm not big on the night scene anyway) and I always locked up my belongings when I left the hostel. I did plenty of research ahead of time to make sure where I was staying was safe - hostelworld.com is great for that! The world is huge, so get out and explore - with or without a travel buddy.

Oh and it's a good idea to work on your selfie game, or else you'll end up with pictures like this one:

CHEESE! #Fail

If you'd like help planning, I own a travel company called MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com and I'd love to help you out!

I Have a Thing for Bookstores

Everywhere I go I find myself being drawn to bookshops. I can't help myself - if I see a cute shop or I hear of a unique bookstore I have to find it and go in. Here are some of my favorites:

This picture I am literally planning on putting on a canvas to hang in my house. I just absolutely love it. It's rustic and authentic and represents an amazing memory.

This first three pictures in this post are from Aqua Alta Book Store in Venice. It's off the beaten path but someone I met at the hostel  tipped me off about it. It was so totally worth the venture out past the tourist stops in Venice near St. Mark's Basilica.

This is from a library museum in Venice!

I stumbled on this beautiful little shop in the middle of a walking lane. I love little gems like this. 

That tiny bookshop had books that were hundreds of years old. 

There's beauty everywhere you look, you just need to keep your eyes open.

Malena

Venice Day 2

 Today was a pretty great day. I started off on the right foot by going up the Campanile Tower with hardly any wait. I got some pretty phenomenal photos! Afterwards I headed over to Doge's Palace and again had no wait because I booked online. I had a wonderful time. I just went my own pace and took in the beautiful art. On top of that I got to go to 3 more museums for the cost of the one! And even then it was discounted because I'm under 26. SCORE! One of the bonus museums was even a historical library which is pretty darn awesome in my book. I definitely enjoyed today. I came back to the hostel for dinner and ran into some nice girls from South Korea and Michigan. The Korean girl had had her entire luggage stolen! But from the street, not the hostel. She left it for just a few minutes to get a coffee and it wasn't there when she came back. I felt bad for her, but hopefully she learned not to trust cities! She still had her passport and she has a friend in Milan who speaks Italian so she has some help in filing police reports. 

Me and the girl from Michigan tried to help her out a little - she had just been in Australia and South Africa or something so she had a skirt and flip flops in her purse which she had with her. So she has that and what she was wearing and that's it. The other girl gave her some pants and a flannel and the hostel even let her dig through their lost and found so that was really sweet of them. I luckily had an unopened toothbrush that I gave her so I'm glad I could help at least a little bit!I felt so bad for her. At least she had her passport in her purse. That would have been a disaster.

She also had her phone and charger so that's good! The Michigan girl told us about this beautiful bookstore in Venice so I think tomorrow we are going to try and go find it!!

I need to leave the hostel for the train station by 11am so hopefully we can make it!

Hostels are really a wonderful place.

Malena

Venice Adventure

I woke up mad early but successfully navigated my way to Venice! It was a little confusing but I got the hang of the water taxis soon enough. I checked into my hostel and dropped my bags to go explore until I could get in my room at 2. I really just wandered around and got a feel of the city. It's beautiful here. You know when something just feels right? That's how it feels. I have missed being on boats. I used to spend a ton of time on boats when I was little and it brings back great memories.

At 1:30 I came back to the hostel to gameplan and move my stuff up. The hostel is pretty nice - the shower door is see through. That's not so great.

I was very strategic about when I wanted to do certain things. I noticed the lines were really long for a few things like the Basilica, the Doge Palace and the Campanile Tower so I devised a plan - I would hit the Basilica just before it closed (totally worked), buy a ticket for the Doge Palace so I could skip the line and wait until first thing in the morning for the tower. 

I wound up going to the Basilica at the perfect time and went up to the museum/upper level, It was a great 5 euro spent. I absolutely loved just sitting and soaking up the culture. There were signs everywhere asking you  to respect the holiness of the place but there were an unbelievable amount of people taking pictures, so that was a little annoying, but oh well.

I had an awesome time wandering around the city afterwards and even found the cutest little book store. If the books hadn't been so ridiculously overpriced I totally would have bought some. As it is I bought some beautiful street art as my little souvenir from Venice.

I caught my boat back to the hostel (it's on an island!) and met some people from Australia, China, and Brasil. We hung out and talked over some really yummy drinks at the hostel bar. A good time was had by all, but I peaced out early to head to bed. I'm still exhausted from last week!

Lots of love,

Malena

Planning Our Backpacking Trip Through Italy

Things are starting to seem real! This December I will be going to Barcelona and likely London. After the work portion of my trip I will be backpacking through Italy with a friend. I can't wait.
We started sketching a rough outline of our Italy trip! It's shaping up to be about 8 days of taking the Euro rail from the North to the South of Italy. We think we want to fly into Milan stay there for a day, head over to Venice the next morning and hang out there. Then we might go to Florence and combine cities that day and hit up Pisa the same day. After that we are Rome bound! After a few days in Rome we want to visit Naples for a day before going back to Rome for one last Italian day before heading home.
It is quite a packed agenda and is very rough at the moment but I'm glad we have started the planning process! We originally were toying with the idea of having a friend drive us through Italy, but it looks like we may just stick to trains for this trip. We will be staying in hostels which I am all for, so that should be fun and interesting. I have really been liking hostelworld.com for research and ratings. The hostel I stayed in, in London was only OK but other than that I have been happy with the hostels I've booked off that site.
I plan international trips for a living so this is just more of the same - except I have full control (with my friend's input of course) over what cities and sites we see :) I'm so excited!
I'll keep updating my blog more as I get ready for what is shaping up to be a month- long euro trip.

Malena