The sinking city!

"Not to live for the day, that would be materialistic -- but to treasure the day. I realize that most of us live on the skin -- on the surface -- without appreciating just how wonderful it is simply to be alive at all" - Audrey Hepburn

Each day I am here abroad I am learning to treasure each moment. Even when I miss my family, I struggle in Italian, I just want to eat some peanut butter, and my feet are tired from walking around. I just stop and take a look around at the beauty surrounding me. I look and see the buildings that have been here for hundreds of years. Italy is full of rich history and culture and there is just so much to explore and see. The past few weekends I have been trying to soak up the culture and really get to know Florence. I have found some of my favorite restaurants including Il Gato La Volpe, Gusta Pizza, Gusta Panino, One Euro Gelato (not exactly sure the name but I know the location across the bridge next to the Ponte Vehicco), and Il Prata. The local markets and Esselunga are the places to go to get fresh food and breads. Dolce Vegan and Caffe Cavour have great tea and coffee. As does the small Euro 50 cents in the vending machine below the school Cappuccino con ciocolatte. Mmmmm. Those things help me get through my two three hour classes… I have to admit they are getting kind of painful. My teacher is just so nice though! My favorite museum is the Pitti Palace and the Bobbali Gardens. I could spend hours in there wandering through the paths of the garden and looking up at the ceilings in the palace. I can navigate to all of the different pensiones, take a train to just about anywhere I want to go, buy a bus ticket to the beautiful local town of Fiesole, and point people into the direction of the Duomo. I think I am almost becoming a local Florentine. Well, maybe I shouldn’t push it that far… but I am having a great time!

            This weekend I was going to just stay around Florence again and explore. But, on a whim Jordan and I decided it was time to go to Venice. We found cheap train tickets and a farm to stay in a town outside of Venice and booked all of this the night before. Our day began on Friday at 3:00am. Needless to say it was beyond exhausting but we made due! I slept on the train most of the way there and when we arrived in Venice we rushed to find a coffee shop to keep us awake, it was going to be a long day ahead. We decided that we would go visit the islands the first day. We saw glass blowing in Morano which was incredible. They make the most amazing pieces of art; each one turning out differently with unique character and imperfections. After glass blowing we wandered around the streets and the little shops until we found a park where we sat and ate our packed lunches. Bread, meat, cheese, peppers, and a banana –cheap yet satisfying! There were many pigeons that thought our food looked yummy too! They were trying to attack us but don’t worry my nija moves chased them off.

After Morano we headed over to Borano which was probably my favorite place. This island is famous for their lace and colorful building. Every building we say was a different bright and vibrant color. It was like walking down the streets of a rainbow. I had so much fun just moseying along the canal through the different streets and shops. There was also a leaning clock tower which was cool. Not quite sure what the point of all of these leaning things is in Italy…but maybe they just can’t seem to build their buildings straight? Haha After hanging around Borano for a couple hours it was time to head back to the mainland of Venice. On the long ferry we met some people from North Carolina, Scottland, it is so fun to meet people! I love hearing about peoples stories and travels. We found the bus station and took 45min bus ride to the farm. It was getting rather dark by this time and well let’s just say we didn’t have the best directions. So we were trying to navigate on pitch dark gravel roads in the middle of the night. We made a wrong turn and ended up at this Villa that we thought was the name of the place we were staying and it definitely wasn’t. The poor woman that lived there didn’t speak any English at all and was trying to tell us she didn’t know what they heck we were talking about while I was insisting this was the place we were supposed to stay. Hahaha I finally suckered up the courage to start speaking in Italian and that worked a lot better. She pointed us down a different road and we found our way to our welcoming farm. It was such a quite place with a farm house turned into a bed and breakfast, stables turned into rooms, orchards surrounding, wheat fields for miles, and lots of cats and dogs. The dinner we had was one of the best meals I have had in Italy. We were served a 3 course meal filled with stuffed potato balls, salad, vegetables, bread, veal, cake, coffee, and wine. Yes dad, I actually tried veal andddd I liked it, a lot! I still don’t know if I am okay with the idea of eating a baby calf.. but I tried not to think about that. The next morning we were also treated wonderfully with fresh pastries, cheese, salami, tea, water. I would definitely recommend anyone going to Venice to stay here. We had so much fun!

            After saying our goodbyes to the farm animals and the cute little family that ran the farm we took the bus to Venice. The city of Venice is actually a lot bigger than I expected and boy oh boy are the streets confusing. It took us like 2 hour to find San Marco square filled with all of the pigeons and the basilica. Of course we had to stop for gelato, eat lunch, and peak in some shops along the way.. so that could have been the problem. I think I could have just walked through the streets of Venice all day. They buildings and canal just make everything look so different, like nothing I have ever seen before. I am so glad I made the spontaneous trip to Venice!

            This weekend I am just staying in Florence which will be quite nice. I was sick in bed for two days this past week so I am still trying to get over that. Today, I am going to hit up some museums with Amy, Jenna, and maybe a few other girls. It should be very fun! Then probably some Chinese food for dinner. We found this awesome super super cheap Chinese place.. so I am kind of obsessed with it right now – already ate there 3 times in the past 2 weeks. Anyways, then tomorrow I may head to Lucca with Jenna and bike around and see the city of a thousand churches. We’ll see! It is so nice that the train system is very easy to navigate and it gives you the ability to just buy a ticket a go to a wide ranges of places in such a quick amount of time. I really wish the US had a train system like Europe! Oh, and I found out some information from Great Aunt Sharon today about Ireland. My family lives in Castletownbere, I am excited to continue to find out more information and learn more about my roots! Well, I better finish getting ready. Almost time to head to the museums. Thanks for reading fam bam! And Happy Birthday Payton! Love and miss you!!