Ciao!

Helllllo!

So I know its been a long time since I've talked, but I've been so busy. Tuesday was a great day, I skipped Italian to watch Obama and had a great time. I got home in time for dinner and we all talked about how much we love obama and how great he is.

Earlier that day, we went to the Capolitine hill - one of the seven hills of Rome for Art & Architecture. Pictures following are featuring Bea & Katie and our professor, Dr. Flusche















































There were also some beautiful views of all of Rome from up there:











Also located in front of the hill is the monument to Vittorio Emmanuel II, which is beautiful, but the Romans hate it. Here's a picture of his statue:



We went to Santa Maria Maggiori, by the main train station, for Christian Rome, and that was equally beautiful. Unfortunately, I don't have the pictures with me, but they will be going up very soon.

On Thursday, we went to another museum, and those pictures will be coming soon as well.

Friday was an easy day, with just Italian, and then we all went out to the Discoteca! We meant to leave early, but unfortunately, it was awesome and we totally didn't want to!

I got home around 4 or 4.30 and had to leave for Florence by 6 am. Yikes...

So anyway, I decided to nap and missed my train! I had to buy a new ticket (but it works the same way amtrak works, so I can just use my other ticket another time) and got in at the same time as Martine anyway.

So we got there, checked in to our hostel, and then went exploring. We climbed the Duoma, which is the largest freestanding dome in the world at the time it was built - and is just under 500 steps. We went to an awesome outside market with hundreds of scarves, leather jackets, and more! We went to Piazza dell Signora to see some of the most famous statues in the world and then we were so beat that we went back to our hostel and took a nap :)

After our nap, we went exploring and walked all over florence (its actually pretty small) out to the city gates. We saw Ponte Vecchio, which is the oldest bridge in all of Florence, at night. So beautiful!

Then, yesterday, we got up early and went and saw David, who is huge and insane and amazing, went back to the big outdoor market, went to the Pitti Palace, which is the home of the Medici family, who was the main family of Florence, and walked around their gardens, which stretch up on to hills (they call them mountains) and are beautiful. Of couse, it rained most of the time, but then, when we were in the gardens, it was beautiful and not rainy at all! We finished just in time to climb up another hill - about five million steps - to see Piazzale Michaelangelo - which is a huge piazza up above Florence that gives even more views of Florence.

Basically, you never are actually down in Florence, you are always looking at it from above :) Good thing its so beautiful!

We also went to a chocolate market and got hot chocolate which tastes like melted chocolate bars - YUM. We also explored Santa Croce, which is one of the beautiful old churches in Florence, and saw basically every major person's graves: Michaelangelo, Galileo, Dante, etc.


I have a million pictures and will put them up SUPER SOON!

But other than that, I have two papers this week and my italian final, so I might be a little quiet this week.

On saturday, we're going to Arezzo, Sienna, and Assisi, which should be awesome.

Ciao ciao.