Florence!!...and a Train at 9:4..2

So I am going to catch up everyone who has been reading my blog real fast...because if I don't then me being behind will just get even worse!

So last Wednesday we went to Florence to visit the Accademia to see Michelangelo's statue of David. After that...which wow statue of David...didn't know we could spend and hour and a half talking about one thing. I am so glad Dr. O saved us!!

After that Dr. O took us to Fiesole, which is a really nice town just like a 30 min bus ride from Florence. There we saw a Roman theater and a Bath complex. Which was really cool, but we also had a picnic lunch which was a lot of fun and a great moment to just relax and enjoy our surroundings.

After we got done at Fiesole around...4. I made my way to the ponte vecchio to by me my leather gloves!! I got two pair, a brown set and a black set! I was very excited about that, because tomorrow (Wednesday) We are going to Florence again to go to the Uffizi and I am going to by me a leather jacket!!!

This past weekend we went to Verona with Dr. O for our archeology class. It was a great weekend...except for a few delays. haha Well our train left at 9:42 in the morning on friday...we arrived at the train station at 9:42...so we kind of missed the train. haha Luckly he was not mad, mostly due to the fact we now had to figure out on our own how to get to Verona. Sad to say, but the next train to Florence was not till 11:06...so we had to sit in the train station in Castiglion for an hour. Me laughing and a few others worried we planned out our plan of action upon our arrival in Florence.

We arrived in Florence at 12:54...we quickly got off the train and made our way to the self service station to buy tickets from Florence to Verona. Well we almost bought the first train..but because of our ability to make a train on time we decided not to go with our first choice because it left in 3 min. So our next one was leaving in 30 min. A time we were all very comfortable with, which this train would put us in to Verona at around 4.

Needless to say that was a very long train ride...but we played cards, slept and talked.

Once we arrived we checked into our hotel and put our stuff down. Ran into Dr. O outside the hotel and talked to him about what we missed...which luckily all we missed was going to see Juliet's balcony. So seeing how we missed it we learned where this balcony was and was on our way to finding it.

While searching for the balcony which we found...we found a great candy shop...where it had POPCORN!!!!

I have been craving popcorn for who knows how long, and I finally found some!!! Well the grocery store has popcorn...but because we don't have a microwave we can't cook it.

So I finally got popcorn and it was sooooo gooooddd!!!

We had a very short day after we got to Verona...because we all knew that Saturday would be a very long day so we went to bed very early. It was so great to wake up in the morning having like 10 hours of sleep!!

The next day we walked all around Verona...doing 15+ miles. OOOO If you did not see my facebook status...I have lost 20 pounds since being in Italy! I was very excited to check the scale the other day, and finding out my weight! :)

So you know...if you rub her boob it gives you good luck!! So I am not being creepy...lol

Verona is such a beautiful town, and has a lot to offer. For lunch on Saturday we got Mexican food!!!! It was no tex mex...but when you have not had Mexican food in for like 3 months...anything is good! It was so good!! That night though for dinner Dr. O treated us all to Chinese food. It as well as the Mexican food was so freakin good!! The ++++'s of Verona they have more mixture of food then just Italian even if it is fake Chinese and Mexican!

This weekend was wonderful and April hasn't even started yet and the rest of this semester is going to go by really fast!! With Austria this weekend, and then Barcelona, Rome, Madrid, then somewhere...and then we are done! Insane!!!

Till next time!! Ciao!!!

Venice...and snow!?!?!?!

So it has been two weeks and a little bit more sense my last post basically because we went to Venice and then spring break!

So two weeks ago we went to Venice from Tuesday to Friday. Well none of us figured it would be really cold till one of our professors decided to inform us of the possible chance of snow. Yea...snow!! So packing for a week in Venice and then another week after were climate changes will occur is not easy! I luckily had it easier because I was staying in Italy but for some of my friends...not so lucky. Especially with the issue of only taking one bag for two weeks.

So Tuesday we left for Venice at like 7 A.M. with the train to Florence which when we were in Florence we catch a Eurostar (a very fast train) to Venice! When we arrived we took the bus boat to our hotel on lido. Which the hotel was nice except with all of us having to take showers in the morning uses up all the hot water really fast!

That Tuesday after dropping our stuff off at the hotel and grabbing some food for lunch we went to St. Marks square for the first time. Which included a two hour tour which none of us were prepared for the cold wind!!!! Got a great look at Venice and surrounding area of St. Marks.

The next day we all woke up to a wonderful shower of SNOW!! Yes...SNOW! In the middle of March...I did not understand this! I can only say that it was caused by Global Climate Change. It was intense though because it just snowed and snowed like Colorado style. It must have snowed like 5 in. Well we all found out that the plans for that day were cancelled because of the snow, but they encouraged us to go to St. Marks Basilica on our own. Which we did of course and got there to see them light up the inside at 11 which was so amazing!!!

After we saw the basilica we were done completely for the day so we just walked around Venice going in and out of all the shops. Which was a nice change sense we were use to having to stand and listen to a tour guide for 2 hours at least!

Thursday we went to Murano, Burano, and Tortecllo with my Archeology class. It is was cool! My favorite out of all three of those places was Burano because the houses were so colorful!! Murano was cool of course because it is the location of all the hand made glass.

That took most of our day Thursday, but after we were done with touring those three places we headed back to the hotel to start to pack because the next day was Friday!! Which for everyone it meant a day of traveling! But for me it meant Heather and Mom were arriving!!

Eiffel tower or Leaning tower?

What a weekend!! We went to Pisa, Viareggio and Lucca this weekend. What beautiful places to visit!

We first went to Pisa for class, saw the Piazza del Duomo, Camposanto Monumentale, The Baptistry of the Catherdral of Pisa, which is freakin amazing because how it is built acoustically. We also saw obviously the Leaning Tower...which for some reason I guess because Pisa and Paris both start with a "P" I kept calling the Leaning Tower the Eiffel Tower...not sure why.

We did take every possible pic possible with the tower like any tourist does, holding it...pushing it, kicking it...or even birthing the tower if you are Michelle R. lol

It was a great day in Pisa and luckily the weather was nice to us and cleared up. After all of that we checked in our hostel in Pisa which was right next to the train station...I don't think you could have gotten any closer unless we lived in the train station. Kind of sketchy thing at first because no one answered the door bell...but once we got in the hostel/apartment was so nice!! It was just us so it was great plus we had our own kitchen!! So everyone was excited about that because we ended up cooking grilled chesses for dinner on Saturday night! After we checked into our hostel we went to Viareggio. What a nice little town, defiantly a great place to go when it is warmer. Yet we still found enjoyment in going around the town and looking at all the shops.

Well I had a video that was from inside the Baptistery...but it wont load for some reason. :(

There are a lot of shops around the board walk in Viareggio, plus the ocean was a very nice look, and so you know it is possible for it to start to snow on the beach...if you have never experience it is very weird! We enjoyed just walking around and going in and out of every shop possible plus getting a crepe and gelato!!

We went to Lucca the next day, a like 25 min train ride from Pisa. It was a great day! We had the sun shining and a clear blue sky!! We got to Lucca, got maps and started walking. We got to Lucca around like 1230 ish, so we of course started to look for places to eat. A couple of us weren't hungry a few grabbed a pizza and ate in the square and then the rest of us sat down and enjoyed a nice lunch. Which the place we went to makes HUGH calzones! After lunch we walked around the town to see it and go into every little shop. It was a nice town and a great day trip! The center of Lucca is inside a giant Roman wall so not to many cars are allowed inside. So walking around inside the center of Lucca is very easy nice. It was just a wonderful day and making the weekend so great!! After we were done in Lucca we made it back to Pisa for night. Once we arrived to the train station instead of going back to the Hostel we found a few mini-marts and went inside to buy some eggs! bread! and cheese! so we could make grill cheeses and scrambled eggs. The things you would miss!! We head back to the hostel after getting all the needed food items and began to cook!

The food was delicious!! So good! Was very nice to be able to cook for ourselves! Sunday morning we got up and went to go see the Leaning Tower again to take some better pics of it, plus to go and see the shops around the Tower to make sure we didn't miss anything. We started to head back home about 1130 ish which got us into Florence around 1230. Being in Florence we decided to do some shopping before going on to Castiglion, so we all went off in Florence to do shopping.

The weather and time has defiantly started to change, because more tourist are starting to show up...which kind of gets annoying because it makes everything more crowded...but nicer because more shops are beginning to open more which means for places to buy stuff. Seems to me that more shops with leather are beginning to open which is great!! We walked around our normal places in Florence, I finally bought me a scarf, and a new shirt and pull over sweater. I am very excited about that, around like 4ish we decided we were done and finally headed back to home! To only realize we have to unpack and then repack for Venice/spring break this week!!!

When I write again I will have much to say for it will have been two weeks, a trip to Venice, and a trips to Venice, Florence and Rome with my Mom and Sister!! Yea!!!

Ciao!