Epic Fail

So my promise of trying to keep my blogs more regular has been completely broken. Life and heat and unreliable internet have kept me from blogging much. So much has happened recently that I will try and keep things brief.

I'll start from Wednesday! Stephanie, Veronika, and I traveled to Pisa for the afternoon. Lesson learned from that train trip, if the AC is not working in your car, try the next one, because it usually is in that one. We sat in a roasting car for a good half hour before we realized this. AC has never felt so good. After we arrived in Pisa and ventured our way through the town, we found the Field of Miracles, where the leaning tower is. It certainly is leaning. It leans 5 degrees, so the top is offset 15 feet from the bottom. Now you can sound all smart when you casually bring up the leaning tower of Pisa in your next conversation. So when you first start climbing the tower, all you really notice is that the steps are a bit steep. Then you start to realize that they get easier. And then steep again. Then as you pass people that are coming down you realize that you run into them no matter how hard you try to stay out of their way. Right about then is when it hits you that you are climbing the LEANING tower of Pisa. That's when everything starts to make sense. Besides the spectacular views from the top of the tower and the tower itself, there really isn't much to do in Pisa. So we got ourselves some pizza in Pisa to finish off the day and headed back to Florence.

Thursday we found the best pizza in Florence. Dante's. Two bridges west of the Ponte Vecchio. There you go everybody. That is my gift to you. After Dante's we found a little piazza with a big screen TV and tons of Italians to watch the game! It was rowdy. I did not mention that I have German blood in that crowd. I might have been trampled. But it certainly was a win-win situation for me. I could be proud no matter which team won. Thankfully Italy won! And they advanced onto the finals. But we all know how that one ends, so not as exciting anymore...

Friday Veronika and I had nothing to do after class. So we decided to adventure. Our goal was to discover Florence and get lost. But something that I learned is that it is hard to get lost when you really don't have anywhere you're supposed to be going. We stumbled upon some treasures like a shady park by the river, and the most beautiful neighborhood in Florence. There were tree-lined streets and shrubery everywhere! We hiked up a large hill which ended in the Piazzale Michelangelo. For those of you who don't know about this piazza, it is situated up on a hill right over the Arno River and you can see the entire city from up there. We spent a long while up there admiring the view and resting. We had walked for almost three hours by this point. Since we walked so much and were so hungry, we treated ourselves to Russian food for dinner. I have never had Russian food at a restaurant before, so thankfully Veronika speaks Russian or else who knows what I would have ordered. The store owner loved us since Veronika is Russian and I picked up a few words. Granted, he laughed whenever I tried to say something, but it was worth it. We got a huge discount. I know where I'll be going from now on!

On Saturday, everyone went to Sienna... except me. The trip was already full by the time that I tried to sign up. But this was certainly a blessing in disguise! I got up early in the morning and caught an early train back to Rome to see the lovely Sarah Worland! It is certainly a mind blowing experience to hang out with a dear friend halfway around the world. It kept blowing my mind that I was hanging out with Sarah but we were in Rome and not Albuquerque. We got to see all the things that I missed out on the first time I was in Rome. We went to the Spanish Steps, Piazza Popolo, Vatican City and St.Peter's Basilica, Piazza Navona, and St.Ignatius Church. First off, St.Peter's, wow. That was the only word I could utter when I walked through the doors. It is breathtaking. Every inch is so intricate and beautiful. Then we climbed the Cupola. Five euro and 550 steps and about a pint of sweat are totally worth it. You can see to pretty much every edge of Rome. As amazing as St.Peter's was, I think that St.Ignatius is my favorite church. The perspective of the paintings on the ceilings leaves you awestruck. The ceilings look 3D. I am still not convinced that some of the things are only painted. Sarah and I stood there just gawking at the ceiling with jaws dropped for several minutes. It was so nice to be able to have a bit of home for a day. But it also made me miss everyone else!

Sunday we explored the Boboli Gardens and a Costume Museum in one of the Medici palaces. It was certainly a nice activity for a Sunday afternoon. We even got to see some original clothes that the Medicis wore. I can't wrap my head around the fact that those clothes were about 500 years old. That's older than the United States! Right by the museum was a restaurant called 4 Leoni. Here's my second gift to you. If you are in Florence, even if just for a night, go there for dinner. Get the tuna steak (it's big enough to feed at least two) and the pear ravioli. You will never want to eat anything else again.

As far as school goes, I love it! I was excited to get up and go to class this morning. On Friday we even got to cook! We made tabouleh with stockfish and baked pears. I am thinking about having a dinner party where I cook tons of stuff just so I can try and show everyone the deliciousness of everything here. Words cannot describe it.

So I will keep on working at getting better at this consistent blogging thing. For now, ciao ciao!