During my childhood every summer i would always visit my family and travel to different countries in and around europe. My entire family originates from the country of Poland, and most of my relatives live there and some live in Germany as well. I have vacationed throughout many cities in Germany and Poland a vast amount of times. I have seen any possible attraction from Berlin to the Baltic Sea in Poland. Some of the other countries i have visited while vacationing throughout the European area includes Spain, Austria, Italy, Turkey, Germany, Czech Republic, Tunisia and Egypt. I have seen the magnificent city of Barcelona, the beautiful architecture of Vienna, the colossal pyramids of Giza, but no vacation could ever compare to my marvelous experiences in Italy.
My brother and i used to travel each summer to Poland and spend time vacationing around the European area with my grandma and spend usually a small amount of time with my grandpa who is separated from my grandma. We would often times first go into some of the vast wilderness throughout Poland fishing and hunting with my grandpa for about a week. My brother and i would then would usually visit the Baltic Sea with my grandma for also for a week and after head to visit my uncle and cousins in Berlin,Germany. After that is when we would travel to a more extensive amount of countries amongst the European area.
Vacationing to all these countries had truly been a blessing and had allowed me to see some of the most incredible sights on the planet. Every country had provided a completely unbelievable experience and has brought a new type of culture in my life. I had been granted the ability to experience certain things in some of these places and see certain areas of the world some people only can dream of seeing. Some of the Countries that have impacted me the most would be Italy, Turkey, Egypt and Austria.
Visiting Istanbul, Turkey was just something else. Turkey has a very different style of architecture and has a very different culture than any other country. The people in general would have to be amongst my favorites on the planet. People were so friendly even if you did not know anyone literally everybody would come up to you and say hello and greet you wherever you were. It was amazing to experience this different environment and being legally able to drink alcohol at sixteen definitely enhanced the trip.
When i vacationed to Egypt i had stayed in many different cities. Egypt had among the strictest tourist policies i have seen. They were very discipline in security and while we were touring we were stopped and examined many times. Egyptian pride and interest in the countries artifacts was great part of their culture. It was crazy to have seen the Egyptian Museum in Cairo with King Tutankhamun’s tomb. The most baffling experience in egypt was being able to see the spectacular pyramids in Giza.
Vienna, Austria was architecturally and structurally one of the most beautiful cities i have ever seen. The statues and building designs in that city were extremely baffling. Everything in Vienna was extremely beautiful and it was quite an experience to have gotten a taste of that culture. I did not spend much time in Vienna but it is most definitely a city i would love to return too. I think everyone deserves to have seen how extraordinarily beautiful this city is.
All the countries i have visited have given me life changing experiences. I have seen among the most talked about and popular attractions and lived with the most amazing cultures. I am grateful to have seen some of these historic structures and attractions. Although a lot of countries have more historic and popular references, my trip to Italy was an experience nothing can top.
When traveling to Italy my brother, my grandma and I took a tour bus from Poland all the way to the city Ravenna, Italy near the famous San Marino. Ravenna is a very beautiful city in Italy touching the Adriatic Sea. Our main hotel was in Ravenna and for the first week my brother and I met some incredible friends and had an amazing time participating in events provided by the hotel and enjoying the gorgeous sea. We would spend our days messing around, playing soccer with a lot of the kids in the area and swimming in the sea diving to catch sea crabs. During our last days in Ravenna we visited the Famous San Marino and after spending an incredible time, my family and I got the privilege to stay a couple days in the marvelous city and island on water Venice.
Venice has a such a distinction to any city i have ever been too. Venice is literally a city on top of water where the only form of transportation is walking or by boat and taxi’s there or gondolas are also boats. In Venice i got to visit St. Mark’s Square and some other famous cathedrals. Venice was an extraordinary sight to see and the food in Venice topped any other Italian food i had to that point. Venice is a city unlike any other on the planet and had allowed me to see stuff unlike anywhere else.
After spending a few days in Venice we got back to Ravenna and travelled to the capital of Italy Rome. When in Rome my brother, my grandma and I got to visit the incredible Colosseum. Rome was a diverse city unlike anything i had ever imagined. Rome had literally everything. On the streets everywhere people were playing music and games. Random people would guide us to incredible attractions such as seeing the capitoline museum, the crazy architecture there and of course the famous capitoline wolf.
In Rome we had the privilege also to enter the glorious Vatican City. The Vatican’s giant and incredible spiral staircase baffled everyone. It was amazing to see through the breathtaking design that even early architecture was still fairly advanced for that age in the Vatican City. The Vatican City was most definitely one of the coolest places i have ever been in or even seen due to its history and independent state. The Vatican in general had a certain unforgettable aura about itself that was undeniable. During the rest of my time in Rome i got to experience an event very few people have ever had the chance to experience.
Soccer is by a landslide the most popular sport in all of the world. Europe is especially known for soccer because this continent in total has won more World Cups than any other continent. My brother and I had always been huge soccer fans our whole lives and we actually were in Italy during the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Luckily somehow we ended up on vacation not just in Italy but in Italy's biggest city when the country of Italy had recently earned a spot in the 2006 World Cup finals versus France. Of Course my brother and I had to drag our grandma along for the big game to one of our favorite and biggest restaurants in Rome called Due Leoni.
Due Leoni was a pizzeria and restaurant with extremely great seafood as well. We had gone there many of the previous nights and had tried a lot of food from the pizza to bruschetta and had never been disappointed. My favorite dish without a doubt was spaghetti alla scoglio, which is a type of pasta with a mixed variety of crustaceans and shellfish. We had decided to go to Due Leoni three hours before the game just to be sure we would be able to get seats for the 2006 World Cup Final.

Both France and Italy were not expected to have made it this far in the World Cup finals during this year and my brother and I had been rooting for Italy throughout the competition. Our vacation to italy had been planned many months ago and it was such a crazy accident of geography to have lead us to end up on vacation in Italy's biggest city during the time where our favorite international soccer team was playing for the World Cup.

As soon as the game had started France had scored within the first seven minutes on a very controversial penalty kick. The completely packed restaurant became absolutely dead until the 20th minute where the Italians bounced back and scored a header goal. The crowded restaurant had blown up in excitement and the fan base had come back to life. The Italians chanted profusely and drinks kept being distributed for free. The game had continued very intensely with no one scoring for all of regulation time so the game had moved into overtime.

During overtime the game continued to be very close and the Italians had continued to keep the area enlightened. During the 110th minute one of the most controversial events in World Cup history had happened. The French captain Zinedine Zidane had purposely head butted the Italian goal scorer Marco Materazzi in the chest. Supposedly the headbutt happened because the Italian had said something trying to disrespect the sister of Zinedine Zidane. The French star soccer player got a red card for this act and got removed from the game. The game continued to be tied at one goal for Italy and one goal for France and the World Cup final proceeded to penalty kicks.

Right before the penalty kicks all the Italians in the restaurant had finally slightly quieted down. Looking around i saw many of these Italians praying and begging for a victory in this extremely high-stakes game. My brother and i were nervously biting our nails and shouting out random prayers as well. Even all of the restaurant workers had come out and joined this very intense moment. The penalty kicks start and literally everyone in the entire restaurant is huddled up together in silence.
The first players to kick from each team, successfully make it. Tension heightened and it was then time for the Italian team to shoot again and it went in, GOAL! Now it was time for French star David Trezeguet to shoot a penalty kick for France and he missed and hit the crossbar, the ball barely made it out! Members from each team continue to shoot and both men from Italy and France had made it. It was then all up to Fabio Grosso, if he made his penalty kick the Italians would win the 2006 World Cup. Grosso, lined up slowly and perfectly placed the ball in the net to land the Italians their first world title in 24 years.
The whole city of Rome instantly blew up and started partying like i had never seen. We paraded through the streets going absolutely insane throwing confetti and blasting fireworks throughout. People were giving champagne and wine to everyone and free food was shared throughout as well. The streets were flooded with people everywhere you looked and there was no way any car could ever get through. I had never before seen anything like this, people were dancing, singing and parading the whole night till noon the next day.
This whole entire Italian experience had been more than i had ever dreamed of. Seeing historic cities and landscapes such as Venice and San Marino. Also entering one of the most historic places on earth the city-state Vatican City and spending time with your family. Most incredibly having a chance to see your favorite soccer team win playing your favorite sport when being in that country, that was just something i don't think anything can ever come close to comparing to.