Hi. I'm in.. Italy...: Buona Pasqua!

Happy Easter!!

Wow. Well it's been quite a while and quite the wonderful few weeks.

My week with Michael was amazing and very relaxing. Following Rome, a relaxing week was just what I needed. But the weather was beautiful and really warm so we had to be outside and take some walks, I showed him where I run and the places with pretty views of Florence. One day we decided to go for a bike ride to this park. Well, little to our knowledge we were headed up a mountain. We literally were on the lowest gears and pedaling so fast but not weren't making any progress on this canyon road. It reminded me of PCH, when it cuts through the canyon. Exactly like that. We were getting hungry so we ended up stopping and having a picnic on someone's olive vineyard. Perks of biking up a mountain, we had the most beautiful view. After our lunch we decided to go back down to return the bikes, two hours up, 20 MINUTES down. We literally biked up a mountain. Typical..
Gosh I don't even remember all that we did. We found really yummy beer that we both loved and went quite often to happy hour to drink. Now the people at the bar recognize me when I walk by. Ha. Michael also got a lovely glimpse of the roommates and all their craziness. After being around guys and lesbian roommates he was not ready for it but did well. They all loved him, per usual.. Showed off his dance moves, also typical. It was a really great week and I was really sad to see him go.

But I didn't get too much time to mope. Taylor Demargien was here for her spring break so I met up with her on Tuesday to catch up and chat. She's studying in Madrid and having a lot of fun. And then Maddy and Meghan came on Wednesday and were here till Friday. It was nice to hang out with them and catch up. Meghan is staying with a perfect little family in Copenhagen. Denmark sounds like a complete Utopia, it's weird. Spain sounds pretty similar to Italy. Maddy also lives with a host mom who force feeds her. I asked if I could come to a dinner. :) So my last three weeks with family and friends was amazingggg.
Unfortunately with all these fun visits I didn't get much/any homework done and I sadly do go to school where my grades transfer. So I've really got to get goin on the 4 presentations, papers, and exams I have due within the next month. Wahoo! Good thing this weekend we went to Pisa! The tower is still getting its lean on. I don't know how much longer it can stand like that. We took the classic Pisa pics and headed back to Florence, there's not much else in Pisa other than the tower.

I was in Florence for Easter and they have this tradition where they parade in this giant cart full of explosives and place it in between the Duomo and the Baptistry. They then have this fake dove fly from out of the Duomo and into this cart that sets off a fifteen minute explosive/ firework show. So Eliza and I went to an Italian mass in the Duomo, didn't understand one word. We got out at 10 and there was already a large crowd gathering for the show at 11. We tried to find a good spot to stand and just dived into the depths and masses of people. It was actually pretty terrible. At 10 45 it started to rain so all these umbrellas popped up and you couldn't see anything. People were shoving and trying to squeeze through to who knows where, it was just complete chaos. The rain stopped just in time, the umbrellas went down, and the show started. It was really cool. But you can understand why a lot of Florentines haven't even seen it, just because it's an absolute zoo. And then I guess in Italy it is popular for families and friends to go out for a big lunch instead of dinner. So Eliza's mom treated us to an Easter lunch (via her credit card) at this really yummy place across the river. Ended up being a place that her mom and dad ate on their honeymoon. Cute cute. We had a really great Easter lunch/dinner. I ordered a random dish, ended up being beef and tasted like Mom's beef stew. I had a sentimental moment. And then ordered cheesecake and was all better.

Monday we went to another small Tuscan town called San Gimignano. It was really beautiful. I fudged up and definitely should have gone there with Dana and Michael. It was really pretty. They call it the medieval town; it's enclosed by a big wall and has a lot of its towers still intact. The view was freaking beautiful. I really missed the family while I was there.

But one month left! Holy crap. Good thing in this next month I will be in Paris, Barcelona, Amulfi Coast, and possibly a concentration camp..? All fun and games!
One more month and then I am home. So crazy!

Let's see what little pictures I have to share..