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.