My aching feet. But I love Florence!

FIRENZE! Also known as Florence. :) Can you say awesome? Cause this city is everything and more. Nothing beats the Duomo, shopping, gelato, museums, gardens, statues, the Ponte Vecchio, leather shops, mass in Italian, and climbing 450 stairs to see the entire city of Florence.  I'll start with that last one. Climbing the stairs. Wowwwwww. Anyone claustrophobic should steer clear. Anyone without claustrophobia and 2 functioning legs should walk those stairs knowing that they will see a most GORGEOUS view of Florence.  I didn't know that my thighs could burn so much or I could feel so out of breath. But what really took my breath away was the view at the top of the campanile. I was above the Duomo and looking out over tile roofs and busy squares. It was quiet and the breeze was steadily blowing over the top of the tower as I was looking at the mountains and the square below. Amazing. I took lots of pictures before descending all 450 stairs again.  Side note--I apologize for the lack of posting anything yesterday. I was so exhaust from traveling from Lido di Jesolo (the Adriatic beach town near Venice) and I just couldn't stay awake to write. Yesterday wee took a walking tour of Florence and saw the Ponte Vecchio before heading 45 minutes outside the city to a suburb where our hotel is. The Ponte Vecchio is a brige with shops that all sell gold. The shops hang ov the edge of the bridge and look like houses (where people used to actually live and some still do). It's quite a sight--google it! Today after climbing the tower, we walked across Florence to the Pitiful Palace, which is home to the gardens of a many dukes. After so much walking, it was hard to stay on our feet. All I really wanted was to take part in the Firenze wine tasting festive happening in the palace square. PER FAVORE. But we had a tight schedule. After 2 hours exploring the palace and gardens (similar to Versailles) we walk to get gelato at Vivoli! It's a world famous gelato shop near the leather factory, and for 3€ for a big scoop, it was the perfect treat after so much walking. I got coffee and chocolate. Yummy yummy!  Then we headed to the outdoor market, where I made some purchases and bargained my way to affordable prices. Pretty proud of myself on that one! Bought some earrings and gifts. W didn't have too much time there causes we had to meet with our guide, Antonio, by the Duomo to walk to dinner, which was also clear across town. So we just did a lot of walking across Florence. So now I know the city well, and look forward to visiting it again! (oh, and dinner was tasty.) This hotel is a definite improvement from the last. The rooms have high ceilings and balconies, and the TV has more than 3 stations. Last night I watched the Cosby show in Italian. I can cross that off my bucket list...? The staff is also very kind here, which was not the case before. I will miss staying here, seeing as that we are going to a completely different kind of accommodation tomorrow. Which is... A convent.  Yes.  A convent.  With nuns.  Wow.  But actually, I'm really looking forward to it, and apparently they are too. It won't have internet (so I might not be able to post the blog until I get home) but they will cook us dinner and have us in by 11:00pm. They might even invite us to daily mass! (we went to mass today by the way. At the holy cross church in Florence. How fitting! It was in Italian, but beautiful nonetheless).  So that's what's up for now. Hope everyone is well back in the US. Pray for us! Off to Assisi tomorrow on our way to Rome. Cannot WAIT! Buona Notte!

Venezia. Bene!

Ah, Venezia! I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful visit to Venice. It is a place everyone should visit--the city was just as unique as can be. We started the morning early--7:30am! We ate a quick breakfast, and then hopped aboard a water taxi that took us to the island of Venice. Quite literally, Venice can only be accessed by boat. People can take trains over the water, but the city was made to be inaccessible (unless you were privileged enough to have a gondola). By the way, we were able to ride our own gondola later in the afternoon. More on that in a minute. :) We started at a glass blowing factory where we watched the famous Murano glass get made by the artisans. INCREDIBLE. I wonder at how they can master such amazing and intricate work. Afterwords, I bought a beautiful charm for my Pandora bracelet. I'd rather remember Venice that way than with a tourist-y something catered towards American tourists. The glass store was incredible. There were blown chandeliers, goblets, figurines, and vases all beauituflly handmade (and priced for a salary of a celebrity). But they were fabulous to look at.  We continued on the water taxi to the main square of Venice--San Marco. As in St. Mark (of the big 4). It is said that he is buried here--the Italians stole his body from his original grave to make the beautiful church more special. Our guide, Antonio, gave us some others great information about the city while we walked with our local guide before freeing us for lunch before the gondola ride. My mom and I ate at a panini shop and took our sandwiches with us as we walked through the square. We were even serenaded by a man singing opera with his accordion on a Gondola. The essencence of Italy, ladies and Gents.  Then it was time for our gondola ride! Our gondolier, Andreas, took us through the tiny waterways and onto the grand canal. I could only imagine how it was living in Venice many years ago when it was firt built. These narrow waterways wewre probably filled with all sorts of people. The police rode on boats, the ambulances were boats--EVERYTHING.  After the gondola, we went into the Dodges palace. This palace was home to many famous rulers--the Dodgeses varied. But Napoleon was there, and event the fascist Mussolini. If only those walls could talk. The art was beautiful, and the great room is home to the world's largest canvas painting: in paradiso. It's massive. No ifs, ands, or buts. (but add another "t" to the last one and there were quite a few of those. Sorry, I had to.) Then it was back to the hotel for a yummy dinner of more pasta, and then a walk along the Adriatic Sea. Beautiful and wonderful. We are bound for Florence, or Firenze in TUSCANY tomorrow. The next post I write will be from under the Tuscan sun. Can't wait to continue traveling! So long for now!

Safe Arrival!

Thursday morning, 5:00AM:  I am sitting in the Frankfurt airport, and I can't help but smile. I'm in GERMANY! Sure, I'm only here for 4 hours. But I'm in a new country where pretzels are everywhere and people are nice. It's also pretty early here--only 7am. It's nice to just sit and people watch.  The long flight was surprisingly comfortable. I dozed a bit, but was basically awake the entire 7 hours and 33 minutes we were airborne. Watched an opera, an Adele concert, and listened to the entire soundtrack of Les Mis. Can't complain! The food wasn't awful and the flight attendants were quite chatty and friendly with us. I'll probably hate myself a little later for not sleeping, but I'll do my best to stay awake and keep smiling.  Our layover was pretty long, so we all had time to walk around a bit. The area we were in was actually a special terminal for Lufthansa connecting passengers, so they had complementary drink machines in multiple lounges that gave 15 different coffee\caffeine related drink choices, and portioned them into perfect little espresso cups. YA. It was wonderful. I bought a pretzel for the connecting flight to Milan and my oh my, was it yummy. The was also loads of beer on tap at various stations around the terminal, but it was way too early in the morning, and I still have lots of transportation ahead of me. :) Thursday late morning, 9:30AM On another note, we just flew over the Swiss Alps. I cannot describe how beautiful they looked against the clouds and the blue sky. I definitely want spend some quality time in this part of the world if I can.  Thursday afternoon and evening: We finally made it to our destination! But not before stopping in some special places along the way from Milan to Venice.  We stopped in the city of Verona, about 2 hours from the Milan airport. In Verona of course is the famous balcony and statue of Juliet, of the famous Romeo and Juliet. Our tour guide explained how Shakespeare's tragedy was actually borrowed from an Italian true story, based off of two families: the Capulets and the Montagues. It is also the place where the movie "letters to Juliet" was filmed. They say if you write your name on the wall with the name of your significant other, your relationship will continue to thrive. People wrote on EVERYTHING: locks, walls, windows, doors, plants, gum--it was everywhere. Very cool to see. I would love to write more, but after having not slept for over 30 hours, it would be in my best interest to rest up for Venice tomorrow before I start writing gibberish.  We have a ferry ride in the morning to get there, and a gondola ride in the afternoon! Buona Notte!

Ciao, America!

Once again, I am off on a European adventure; this time to a country I've never visited: ITALY! I am so blessed and lucky to have this opportunity to travel with my former high school and my mom, who I am convinced is actually superwoman.

Just as I did before, I am going to do my best to keep a blog regularly while I am abroad. Feel free to check in with our adventures (as I describe them to the best of my ability). WiFi can be hard to come by abroad, and we're staying in lots of rural locations outside of major cities. So be aware that I may not get to post regularly. But I will do my best! I've scoped out our hotels/home stays/convent stay amenities, and I shouldn't have too many issues. Seeing as that I will be using the iPad for writing, there may be some typos thanks to the loveliness of Auto Correct. So, per favore, bear with me!

Just a rundown of our schedule today:

We will be departing the airport around 3:30pm U.S. time, and will arrive in Frankfurt, Germany at about 5:00 am tomorrow, Europe time. After a 3 hour layover, we will fly to Milan, Italy, where there will be a bus waiting with our guide for the trip. We will get on the bus for 4 hours from Milan to Venice, our first stop.  Hm. This should be interesting.

We'll all be meeting at the airport in a couple of hours to get all of the 42 girls situated with their luggage and checked in before we move through security. Pray that all goes smoothly and that we have a safe and uneventful trip.

I won't have a phone, but I will have my iTouch, on which there is an app for texting. I will post that number here as soon as I set it up.

Now, I'm going to go eat some pancakes and bacon. Can't wait to see what an Italian breakfast is like!
Ciao, America!