cinque terre

today we got to hike cinque terre, starting just before the first town and then hiking for about an hour and half to the second, an hour and a half again to the third, an hour to the fourth, and half hour to the last. every town was similar and near the beach and just had amazing views and water! the colors were amazing and after the hike we took the train back to the first town and hit the beach. tonight we are staying in la spezia, leave tomorrow for nice, stay a night and fly back to home! sad, very sad. so long italy!

Hi sis cozzi!

sis cozzie i saw this in florence and took a picture just for you :)

traveling traveling traveling

leaving venice we took the bus through the dolomite mountains and switchbacks and hairpins all over the place but through beautiful mountains and greenery. we stopped at a cable car and took it to the top and the panoramic is the view from the top. now we are in rovereto and leaving for milan tomorrow. i just dont want to think about how fast the rest will go...

more venice and murano

venice

on the way to venice we stopped at a town to see a museum but we also saw a man on the street juggling knives and fire and bowling pins and plungers! we made it to venice and it just did not seem real. it was so beautiful and old. it is one of the most touristy cities i have been it so part of the time it seemed like an amusement park where people come to play and buy the goodies and trash the place. because of that too it was hard to find good food (as evidence by our first night dinner) so we had a great break and had chinese food one night and hard rock cafe the next! it was way fun, gotta say :) we took a gondola ride and took a trip to murano, the glass island, and saw a factory and a little piece of what it is to make glass.

last days in florence and a trip to pisa

here we got a picture of the leaning tower again and in florence i went to a leather factory where you can watch people make leather bags and such. the sculpture is michelangelos last sculpture and the boats are a restaurant a few of us went to on the banks of the arno river for one of our last nights. it was a boating club house and the food was great! i had fish with eggplant and mozzarella cheese. so good :)

Italian beach

about ten of the students and i took a trip to a beach today! it was a really resorty area with private beaches right next to each other and lots of people out. it was perfect weather and the water was amazing. these are pictures of what the beach front looked like, the umbrellas (different colors were the different property owners), and a sailboat. other than too many guys in speedos, it was perfect and relaxing and warm! last week in florence this week tho :(

Parma

Parma was pretty cool. we went to the Bodoni museum on the guy who made a new typeface at the time, the picture of the A is something they used to make all the type to set for printing. the buildings were all pastel colors walking around and this one castle thing was pink! we got a quick shower there that felt good. allergies have sure picked up for me now and hit hard.

pisa, pastries, lucca

since its been forever...

the countryside of tuscany was so beautiful. this was between san gimignano, volterra, and siena

gelato

gelato again today! new favorite is the raspberry flavor. its got raspberry bits in it too and isnt too fruity. and the dark chocolate from the same store is really rich too...but raspberry wins this time. ellie and i got the same thing :)

florence, finally

We made it to florence without an apartment yesterday. the apartment that was rented and payed for since november, the girl that was staying there got hit by a car apparently and had surgery but it didnt work so her parents came over and the apartment owner let her stay even though we had it rented...so we apartment shopped with a rental agency person and it still wasnt clear what was going to happen so we just stayed in one apt and today moved to a completely different one. its smaller and not as nice but itll do :) florence is a lot bigger than i thought it would be. more busy and taller buildings. i was expecting something more quaint. today we climbed to the top of the duomo which has the largest dome in the world i think...the view was great! you could see the red roofs of florence and then the green hills beyond it. pictures to come. its weird to get in the mindset of staying in one place for a while but i think it will be really nice to not be moving all the time.

wow these last few days went super fast. saturday was naples, herculaneum, pompeii, and salerno. sunday was orvieto and today was civita and florence. it feels so good to get to florence but need to get in the mindset of staying in one place for a month instead of moving almost everyday!

so heres some pictures theres one of the pantheon, a ferrari, the colosseum at night, a skeleton from herculaneum, me at pompeii, the view from orvieto, and the town of civita.

First Day, 196 Pictures

Quite the full first day! We went to vatican city in piazza san pietro and were welcomed by thousands of people crammed up to st peters basilica. we waited for a bit and the pope came out, made a few rounds in the popemobile and then gave a talk. It was pretty sweet to see that...we went to the vatican museums and saw the sistine chapel and tons and tons of other art (dali, da vinci, raphael, michelangelo, etc). quite the experience. we had lunch at a pizzeria and walked the streets by the vatican. it seems every side street is photogenic! we went back and toured st peters basilica, sat on the spanish steps, saw the vittoria monument, and the trajan column, and the travi fountain, stopping on the way home for another gelato :) between the vatican and the spanish steps and our place we took the subway and all throughout today i started a MINI journal. i saw a bunch of MINIs and decided to take a picture when i saw one so ive been getting quite a few! all the cars here are small; they have all the euro makes like opel and citroen and ...the others i forgot. oh alfa romeos those look nice. and i saw a maseratti at dinner, parked right in front of me! we got internet somehow but it will be sporadic until florence in a week. italy is awesome, i just wish i could speak italian better. ciao!

Where is the free wifi?

I finally made it! Already there is so much to share. Rome is great i love cities in general so i feel right at home. I already ate a pizza and un gelato and today we are going to tour the whole Vatican city. Write more later,
clarke