Days trips this weekend to Pisa, Siena and Lucca!

Ciao! It was quite the busy weekend for me! My roommate Roxanne and I took two day trips on Friday and Saturday and then our program took us to the small town of Lucca and then headed to an olive oil tasting! It was a really good weekend, because all of these were places that I wanted to see, and they were just a short train ride away, which made it very convenient! The weather here is cooling down...a lot. It is still beautiful out most days, with the sun shinning, but...it can be deceiving because the wind and temperature can be more harsh than expecting...nonetheless, we had a great weekend seeing other parts of Tuscany!

The first trip, to Pisa was a blast. That was the only day in terms of weather that was cloudy, but Roxanne and I had a really great time together, taking pictures with the Leaning Tower and walking around the small town. There were a lot of fun shops to walk through, and of course, we had to get gelato, which was delicious. One of the most entertaining part of the trip was, in a non-offensive way of course was seeing all of the Asian tourists! Seriously, Pisa was just packed, and it was just so entertaining watch everyone pose with the Leaning Tower, because everyone just looks so ridiculous. The pictures hopefully prove the points I am trying to make! So, despite the weather, it was still really fun to be with Roxanne and seeing this part of the country!

Our second day trip was to Siena. It is sooo beautiful there! The weather was sunny, but bitterly cold, both her and I could barely move by the end of the day. Plus, the sun goes down at like 5, so it gets even more cold when that happens. Anyways, Siena is so nice, the architecture is beautiful, and it just has a really clean, quaint feel to it. Like Pisa, there were so many cute shops to walk through and my favorite part was sitting in Piazza del Campo, a pretty well known Piazza in Italy. We just ate some lunch, got gelato, and sat in the Piazza for about 2 hours, because the sun shinning down on us felt sooo good. It's definitely an Italian "thing" to just sit in piazzas, which has become my favorite thing here. People just sit, listen to music, read, journal, drink wine and enjoy the beautiful scenery and realize that Italy is probably the most amazing place they've ever been to :) So, we saw a lot of churches and buildings that were very classic. Besides the cold weather it was a great city to see!

And finally: Lucca. A small town about an hour away from Florence. It's a walled in, quaint little town, with a ton of churches! They call it the town of 1,000 churches (not actually that many) but there are a ton and it made me think of Minnesota-The Land of 10,000 Lakes...MINNESOTA PRIDE BABY! Haha, but it was cute, the only thing is that a lot of things are closed on Sundays, so we weren't able to enjoy browsing through the shops like the other two towns. After visiting Lucca, we went to an oil farm and had an oil tasting! It was so cool! Did you know that it takes 1,000 olives to make ONE BOTTLE?! Only like one drop is used from the olive because more than 50% of the olive is actually water. Also, black and green olives grow on the same tree! WHO KNEW?! I should probably work for them, because I'm so knowledgeable now ;) Then we got to taste the oil the farm produces and it was so so good! We got lots of bread, olive oil, salami and olives...DELICIOUS and my kind of meal :) Again, the sun was out and beautiful, it was just a little chilly!

Great weekend, so glad I got to see these places! This week, I've got to start some final papers that are due in the next two weeks and start the "beginning of the end" of visiting all my favorite places one last time like, especially St. Miniato and Piazza Michaelangelo. Can't believe I only have a month left! Ciao!

Holidays are just around the corner!

Ciao! So me and my roommate Casey were on our way to class today and we witnessed the first sightings of Christmas decorations in the streets! WOO HOO! They're hanging lots of lights up and down the streets by our apartment, I'm so excited to see it at night! Christmas festivities will start up soon here...there are LOTS of Christmas markets to go to, one that is right by our apartment in Piazza Santa Croce, and they do a huge lighting of a Christmas Tree in Piazza de Republica! (Linds-your fave) Can't wait for Thanksgiving to come, because then it means I can officially start listening to Christmas music 24/7 :) I've got my playlist set and ready to go, haha, sad but I am so ready for Mariah.

Speaking of which...that is something I am going to miss next week :( Setting up the Christmas tree Thanksgiving weekend at home. Dad always does his part by bringing the tree up from the basement and putting the lights on-perfect every time I might say, and the last two years, Linds and I have been in charge of the beads and ornaments. All of this is done by blasting Mariah Carey's Christmas cd over and over again until we're done. So...needless to say, I'm going to miss that this year. It'll ALSO be weird not having snow! It's November 18, and I'm still wearing sandals every other day! So...on Thanksgiving, I have class, but at night, so I can celebrate all day before then! I think the closest thing I can get to an American Thanksgiving meal is going to a restaurant that has American brunch...that'll do I suppose! Listen up...please eat lots of potatoes and stuffing for me because those are my favorite!!!!!!!!! I wish we had an oven in our kitchen, but we don't so I can't cook OR bake any of the holiday treats I crraaaavvvve. Anyways, more on holidays to come I'm sure!

This weekend I'm going to go to Siena on Friday with Roxanne. We've heard it's pretty beautiful there, so I'm excited! Then on Saturday, we're going with our program to another Fiorentina soccer game and on Sunday, we go to Lucca! It'll be a fun weekend, hopefully the weather stays beautiful, ciao!

The Last Visitors :(

Just had another AMAZING time with Jennifer and Kristin!! They stayed with me from this past Thursday to this morning, and it was just the best. Like I said about Leah and Linds coming, nothing beats spending time in Italy with friends and family from home. Jennifer and Kristin are studying in Edinburgh, Scotland and came over for the weekend. The place they are staying and studying is where me and a couple other friends, Kelly, Vanessa and Danielle are going to go for Christmas and New Year's, and judging from their experience and pictures, it'll be amazing and I can't wait! Our time together, like I said, was great. The weather was beautiful! It was sunny from Friday morning to last night, so we were really able to enjoy the sights and activities in Florence. Obviously, I took them to my favorite spots: to St. Miniato (the pictures that are shown are from there), Piazza Michaelangelo, El Gato for dinner, and all over for gelato :) We made some great home cooked meals, and I made sure they got to eat the best Italian food possible, meaning bread from The Forno :) We climbed the Duomo, did some shopping in the markets, or "bazaars" as Jennifer would call them, and even got to experience another wine tasting. The weather was amazing, kind of like the beginning of fall in Minnesota...which is my favorite! Since we hadn't seen each other in so long, we were up pretty late every night talking and catching up...pretty sure the earliest we went to bed was about1, every other night being around 3 or 4! Life is to short to sleep though, right? One of the nights we went to the "secret bakery." I had never been there, but my roommate Roxanne wanted to take us, so we went! It opens at 3 in the morning, and it's fresh pastries right from the oven. BEST PASTRIES EVA! And super cheap, which is even better. It's the secret bakery because technically they aren't a bakery, they just distribute to other places, so I don't think they are really supposed to sell it to us...OH WELL! It was totally worth it! It was SO good to see them and I can't wait to spend Christmas and New Year's with them in Scotland!

Coming up: hopefully some day trips to Pisa, Lucca, Fiesole and Siena...I probably mentioned that before, just refreshing the mem. I'm excited to see more towns close to Florence, I love the small town feel of this country. Not to mention the beauty of it all! I'm really enjoying my roommates Casey and Roxanne. We always have a good time together in the apartment and going around town and it's making me a little sad to think we only have a few more weeks together. At the end of our trip, we're all gunna go out and get the biggest gelato ever. Favorite flavors: cookies and cheesecake, nothing can beat it! It's one of the many activities all enjoy together, so we're gunna splurge on our last day together!

Well, that's about it for now...just have a week of classes and catching up on some sleep! If you're looking for something to do, just come to Florence, I'll show ya around.

Visitors welcome anytime!

Ciao! I realize it's been like 2 weeks or something since my last blog...however...life has just been nuts!! I experienced mid-terms in Italy...and let's just say I won't be studying for finals if they are anything like the mid-terms. Haha...just kidding mostly. Well, Leah was here two weeks ago and it was AWESOME! Nothing like spending time with your best friend in Firenze. I made sure to take her to all of my favorite places for dinner and gelato, and then we did some fun things like climbing the cathedral Duomo, in the center of Firenze, which was 463 steps to the top! Pretty amazing stuff. We also climbed to a church called St. Miniato, which really has a beautiful city view of Florence. We made sure to hit up the markets, and we made a lot of delicious home-made meals in my apartment. It was sad to see her go back to London, buuuuut, I'll see her soon and we talk a lot, so I'll make it through :)

The morning Leah left, LINDSEY CAME! It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOD!! She actually just left about two hours ago, and let me tell you, tears were present. She got here last Saturday, and we didn't stop until the minute she left! She got to see all of Florence. And like Leah, I made sure to take her to all my favorite spots, like: climbing the Duomo and the hike to St. Miniato, dinner at El Gato and Open Bar, gelato every day, the San Lorenzo market, Ponte Veccio, etc. Her fave was the Piazza de Republica. It's the most modern piazza in Florence, has all the nicest stores and is just really fun to be at. All the time we spent together was AMAZING, the one thing I would've changed was the weather. Out of the 7 days she was here...one was with sun :( Honestly, I was a little embarrassed. Haha, I just haven't seen any clouds or rain since I've been here, so the fact that the day she comes it all changed was a little upsetting. Along with seeing all of Florence, we made a trip to Rome for two days, which was AWESOME! I'm so glad I had been there before, because I kinda knew the way around and knew the general direction of the big things to see. Thankfully we brought our umbrellas because it rained hard-core the first day we were there! We got to stay in a hostel one night and then we saw the Vatican city the second day. We got to walk through St. Peter's and see the Sistine Chapel. Linds being the sneaky and determined little thing she is, snuck a pic, even though they aren't allowed. She got caught the first time, and then when the guard came up to her, she pretended she didn't speak English, or Italian....haha. Then she got a great pic and a couple minutes later we made our exit. We took a train back and I had the privilege of making her my routine dinner: noodles, red sauce and bread. Now she was able to experience what I do EVERY NIGHT. Haha...but for real, I'm bringing back the tradition of olive oil and salt, forget butter it sucks, O.O. all the way! The next day we went to Cinque Terre, because we were hoping that the weather would change for the better, but it didn't :( It was windy and cloudy and we couldn't ride the fairy boats and see all the pretty villages from the sea. However, we made the best of it, made it to three of the five villages and got some great pictures, thanks to Linds. She found some great spots that I didn't find last time. Like I said earlier, she's determined to make the best of wherever she is, and I love it. We had fun on the trains and def. made the most of our trip there, despite the weather.

Last but not least, because Linds has got the hook-ups wherever she goes, we got to stay in the Four Seasons in Firenze last night!!! It was absolutely amazing, there are no words to describe. It was an old palace owned by one of the richest families in Florence and it has been restored into the hotel. Lindsey's old co-worker, Christiano, gave us a tour of the entire hotel, which included seeing a suite that costs 16,000 Euro for ONE NIGHT. Think of that in American money and you may want to die. It was so great, we ordered in room service for dinner and ate a traditional Tuscan breakfast, which was AMAZING. Our beds were considered twins, but to me it felt like a king, soooo great. Both Linds and I loved staying there and were SO thankful that we were able to see the hotel and experience a new aspect of Florence.

Well, that about sums up the time I've had in the last two weeks! It's so crazy to think I've only been here for two months and that I still have TWO MONTHS TO GO!!!! Seeing Linds made me a little homesick for people, so I'm really excited to see YOU (reader) when I get back. Still have lots to do while I'm here. I'm hoping to make some day trips to places close to Florence, like Pisa (as in Leaning Tower) and Siena, and then a small town called Lucca. The more time I'm here, the more I realize how much I love Italy, and how much I love where I am. I am really getting to know places here, and I love all the cute shops and food places, and my favorite, the views from the Duomo and St. Miniato. All of these things make me love this experience and I always think to myself, "I still can't believe I'm here!" God is teaching me so much, and SHOWING me so much, by experiencing a new culture and seeing a new part of His creation. It truly is amazing to be in another part of the world and learning more about Him in so many different ways. I've been stretched in my faith more than I ever thought possible, and I love it, especially since it's all in Italy...what could be better?! This last week, Linds and I talked a lot about mom, and how much we wish she was able to come on this trip with her to see me. We talked about our favorite things about her, and different memories we had of her, and it was just really great having conversation center around her :) Having Linds here was the best, it was so nice to spend a whole week with her...miss her already!!

That's about it for now, and instead of what the Italians would say, I'll say in the words of mom, "Peace, love, and Bobby Sherman!!"