
Hello,
It’s been a full week since I’ve gotten back from my Italy trip, and let’s say its been hard to adjust! Many wonderful things happen in Italy including, getting engaged to my soon-to-be HUSBAND! In this blog post, I wanted to go over in more detail all the great activities that Contiki put together for us. I’ll be breaking down each city into separate post and go more into detail about each place. Let’s get started!!!!
Matt and I have always booked and planned our own trips from start to finish. When the time came to plan our next trip, we decided to book through Contiki, a travel agency for 18-35 years old. The thought of sitting back and relaxing while letting someone else do the planning seemed like a nice change of pace for once. Contiki for the WIN!!!!
Contiki made it easy to book our flight and hotel stay through them. They had a variety of destinations to pick from which made it hard because every place looked so beautiful. In the end, we picked Italy because it has been on the top of our list for a really long time. For our package, we went with the Italy Expresso which turned out to be a great decision!
Contiki provided all the information we needed including our itinerary, booking, and flight information. We even booked a transfer from the airport to our hotel through them, which was nice because we didn’t have to worry about a thing!

After reviewing and going over our itinerary, I found myself worried that we weren’t going to have enough free time to what we wanted to do. Surprisingly, Contiki did any amazing job at planning it out so it allowed for a ton of FREE time to explore at our own leisure.
INTRO: ROME
Our Tour Manager, Hazel, was such a doll and explained every single little detail about our trip. We even had opportunities to purchase add-on activities through Contiki for a more in-depth experience of Italy. After our group meeting ended, we headed to a restaurant in the heart of Rome where we had our very first Italian dinner together! It was a great way to kick start our vacation, while enjoying a lovely evening meeting new people from around the world.
Day 1: ROME

Sunday, kicked off with new friends and a walking tour to see some local sights. We visited the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, The Forum and The Colosseum to name a few. The experience of visiting these historical places is something I can not put into words. It’s one thing to see these places in movies but seeing them in person is SOOO different. I definitely felt this moment of gratitude when walking through the City of Rome.



Once we were done with our tour, we had time to kill until our next activity. Matt and I took it upon ourselves to walk around, eat LOTS of gelato and pizza. By the time the evening arrived, we were on our way to our pasta making class!! Our group had our own space with a personal chef that taught us how to make pasta from scratch. We were laughing, dancing and having the time of our lives. Let me just say that our pasta making skills were spot on!


Day 2:
This was our last afternoon in Rome before heading to Florence. Prior to leaving to the next city, we visited the beautiful Vatican City to explore. Fun Fact: Vatican City is it’s own country! Don’t believe me, Google it. It has it’s own currency, post office, has around 900 citizens & is the only country you can’t be born into. Crazy right? We roamed around the museum and saw the master piece of Michelangelo. His creation of the Sistine Chapel was remarkable and left so many speechless. We were also allowed to visit St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the BIGGEST church in the world!
Rome was definitely a beautiful city filled with so much history. It was a great way to start our trip with Contiki. If you love history and museums, then Rome is the city for you! Next on the map, Florence.
Dawn
Leave a Reply