Cartes Postales de Nancy 2012-2013: Les vacances de printemps: Première partie

Spring break has arrived! I have had quite the start to my first week of traveling.

Last Monday, the first grade teacher I worked with took me on a day trip around the Metz area. I got to see the sites in Metz that I had not seen before, and I got to visit the Robert Schuman House and Gardens. Robert Schuman is condsidered one the founders of Europe because he helped form the European Coal and Steel Community following World War II, which would eventually evolve into the European Union today. Schuman was of Luxembourgish and French-German decent, and loved his house in the Lorraine countryside.

Porte des Allemands in Metz

The Robert Schuman House and Gardens in Scy-Chazelles

Then Tuesday I went to Nice again to begin a southern France and Italy trip with some friends. The weather was gorgeous! On Wednesday, we did a day trip from Nice to Monaco. We enjoyed the small-pebbled beach, saw the outside of the palace, and I gambled away 5 € at the Casino de Monte-Carlo. Here are the picture highlights of Monco:

Palais de Monaco

View of Monaco

Casino de Monte-Carlo

After a lovely day in Monaco, we were supposed to take a flight from Nice to Venice...and then a couple hours before our flight was supposed to take off we recieved a message from EasyJet that it was annulé- canceled! Appearenly there was a strike of EasyJet personnal at the Venice airport. Luckily, we had not left for the airport and we discussed our options with a kind employee at our hostel. He recommended that we take the local train to the Italian border the next day and buy train tickets to Venice from there. So early the next morning, we were on our way to Venice. We finally arrived in Venice at 3:40 pm.

I stayed in Venice from Thursday evening to Friday afternoon, so my friends and I wasted no time exploring this amazing city:

Going under a bridge during our gondola ride

Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs)

Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square)

View from the Campanile di San Marco

Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace)

Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square)

The last part of my Italy trip took me to Florence for the weekend. I stayed with a good friend's sister who was studying abroad there for the semester. She is an art history major and was able to explain to me the history surrounding the major landmarks and art in the city. Florence is such a beautiful city!