An Evening Trip to Pisa and a Day Trip to the Beach!

Last Monday afternoon, my roommate Caroline and I took the train to Pisa. It is about an hour train ride, so we just hopped on TrenItalia and went to Pisa! There isn't too much to tell you about, besides us taking the classic pictures with the Leaning Tower and the picnic we had at dusk. Caroline and I were typical tourists and took some pictures with the tower. In the square where the Tower is there is also a cathedral, duomo, and baptistry. In Firenze, our Duomo and Baptistry are pretty dirty... they need funding to get it all clean because it is so huge and expensive. But in Pisa, they were very well preserved and very nice. I didn't expect the tower to be so pretty!! But the whole area was beautiful. There is honestly not much else in Pisa... the town was kind of a dump besides the piazza with the Tower. It was so nice to see grass!! There were huge grassy lawns all around the tower, so Caroline and I brought a blanket from home and shared a bottle of wine, some fresh salame, bread and cheese, and fruit! It was a delicious little picnic right under the learning tower :) On the way back to the train station we stopped for gelato... some of the best I have had in Italy! It was almond flavored (mandorla in italiano) with little bits of almond in it... SO YUMMY!

On Friday, Ashley and I had to say goodbye to Jennifer, Amy, and Caroline. It was so sad to see them go. We had a big Italian family style dinner before they left because we think of each other as our little Italian family. We all shed some tears while they got in their taxi and Ash and I came back to a very empty apartment! So weird to have this place so quiet after 6 weeks of a lot of noise! Caroline got home safely to Texas and Jen and Amy are in Switzerland visiting Amy's aunt. Ashley is going to meet them there next weekend. Hopefully we can all get together next summer!

On Saturday Ashley and I slept in a bit, made some breakfast and took a train to the beach. The town right on the coast is called Viareggio. It was a little over an hour away and we got there around 1pm. We had a little lunch... a panini with smoked ham and brie and a beer :) The beach looked like Destin!!!! There was a huuuuge sandy beach (the first one I had seen since being in Italy), no rocks!! And there were crazy waves like there are in Destin sometimes. It was beautiful and so much fun. We laid out, swam in the Mediterranean, got some fruit at the market for a snack, then headed home around 7... it was a great day! On the way home we stopped at the market and picked up some stuff for dinner. We made a pesto pasta with red peppers and a strawberry salad with shaved pecorino cheese. Of course and a bottle of vino rosso! Delicious. Ashley and I are trying to cook a little bit more in the next three weeks since my bank account is starting to frighten me! I start my cooking class today!! I am getting very excited to learn to cook some Italian dishes to share with all of you when I come home! Hope everyone is doing well... miss you all so much! The next three weeks are going to FLY! I can't wait to see everyone in August. Love you!

Kimmy

The Amalfi Coast... what an amazing place!!

 Sorry its been a while!! Here is an update on my past two weeks :)

Two Thursdays ago, my roommates and I took a trip to the Amalfi Coast! We drove through the night on Thursday on a charter bus, with a program called Bus2Alps... it was awesome!! We arrived in our hostel in Sorrento around 3am and had to be up at 7... yikes. We took a boat over to Capri... a beautiful and stunning island in the middle of the Mediterranean. Can you believe I'm actually going places like this?? It's still crazy to me! We took a boat tour around the entire island. Our tour leaders pointed out celebrity's homes and an old Mussolini castle. It was crazy and these homes were beautiful. We then went to see the Blue Grotto... one of the seven natural wonders of the world and one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life. Four of us get into this little tiny boat that sits really low in the water. Our Italian boat rower  takes us to this little hole in the cliff. He tells us to lay down in the boat... crazy, right? So we go through this tiny little hole and it feels like we were transferred to an entirely different world. In this little cavern, or grotto, the water is electric blue. Literally the most brilliant blue color I have seen in real life. It was fascinating and beautiful and unbelievable. We only stayed in there for about 5 minutes... but we could have stayed much longer just staring at this amazing water. Our guide told us there used to be a tunnel and that is how they believe it was discovered. Now the tunnel has been filled by falling rocks. The Blue Grotto is definitely something everyone should see.. it was breathtaking and I couldn't believe there were places on this Earth that amazing and beautiful. Its not everyday in Ohio and Indiana you see things like that...

Next we continued on the boat tour and saw a few more grottos and cliffs. There was one cave with a natural rock formation that looks like a statue of the Virgin Mary... this was wild. Look at the picture at the top and she is in the center. Crazy and very cool. We then had lunch and spent the rest of the day in Capri. It was a great start to our amazing weekend!!

 On Saturday we drove to Positano. It was about a 40 minute drive from Sorrento. It was so wild to drive in this huge charter bus on the tiny, winding roads of the coast. Kind of scary! We spent the whole day on the beach in Positano, except for the two hours we went cliff jumping and cave swimming!!!! So fun!! I cliff jumped and cave swam in the Mediterranean!!!!! It was awesome :)

Anchor door in Sorrento :) 

On the boat in Positano to play in the brilliant blue water!

"The Three Sisters" Restaurant in Positano!!

Positano

Me jumping off the cliffs!

On Sunday we packed our things from the hostel and drove the hour to Pompeii. I have been so excited to see the ruins here. Ever since I was young I was very interested in the story of Pompeii... probably because I read one of the Magic Tree House books about it and loved it!! Actually, I got to read a little of the book with Ezzie before I left :) Pompeii was amazing right from the start... Everything is so well preserved because the city was just covered in ash and then basically put underground for centuries until it was found in the 1700s. Can you believe that? Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and it wasn't found until 1700 years later... holy crap. The volcano erupted for almost 24 hours, so you can imagine how much soot and ash (no lava, actually) covered the town. Even today not all of the city has been found.. I think our tour guide said there is still a third of the city underground. Archeologists are digging day by day I am sure. Who knows what they will continue to find. Amazing, isn't it? I am so so glad I was able to see this incredible piece of history. 

Mt. Vesuvius

Old Forum in Pompeii

Bodies were preserved for that long because of the ash... the real skeleton is in there. 

Il Vecchio Teatro (Old Theater!)

Another wonderful week in Firenze...

Where to begin?? We didn’t do a big trip this past weekend, but I still have lots to tell!! I’ll start from last Monday… my friend Jen was in town from Paris! I only was able to see her for a few hours, but it was so great to see her. I am beginning to move away from the shock of being in Italy and feeling much more settled in. Along with that comes a little bit of homesickness. I didn’t realize how much I missed my family and friends until after I saw Jen. It was like a breath of fresh air being able to just talk to someone that has known me since I was like 6 years old! I was so happy to see and talk to her while showing her around my new city. On Tuesday the museums and galleries were open for free from 6pm to 11pm. The famous art gallery here is named the Uffizi Gallery and it houses anything from Michelangelo to Bertolini to old religious pictures from previous Italian families. It was huge. We walked through it all, but it was hard to appreciate everything in such a short period of time without a guide. We saw the famous painting the Birth of Venus… it was beautiful. So neat to just live in a city with amazing art and architecture and history. After the Uffizi we traveled north towards our apartment and toward the Accademia which is home to Michelangelo’s the David. Stunning. Huge. Incredible. Flawless. Breathtaking. Unbelievable. I was not prepared to be so taken away by the beauty that is David. He was simply incredible. I was amazed that someone actually created that... it was truly a gift from God that Michelangelo had. So stunning. The remainder of the week was filled with some play time and work time. My wine class is going well.. but to be honest its kind of a lot of work for being in Italy. My professor is pretty tough! But I am loving all the wines and I can't wait to bring some home and share them with all of you. 

On Friday night we went out for a nice dinner to a restaurant called Aque Al Due (they actually have a two restaurants in the states too in San Diego and Washington DC... so if you're ever there you should check this place out!!!) We ordered a salad sampler which came with three different salads... all very good. Then we had a pasta sampler which came with five very small portions of different pastas. These were not amazing, but they were pretty good. My favorite one had a spicey meat in it, it was yummy. Then we ordered the steak sampler :) AMAZING!! One steak was dressed in a blueberry topping, the other in balsamic, and the third was a shaved meat on a piece of bread with tomatoes and parmesan (parm is surprisingly really expensive here... weird) The balsamic was by far my favorite. It had the right amount of sweet and salty taste and was delicious. The steak was so tender and amazing... ugh I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. 

Saturday we stayed in Florence. I shopped around with my roommate Caroline for a little bit because July is a huge sale month for Florence. It was really neat. Then we went to mass at the Duomo. I am sooo glad I got to do this. The Duomo, if I haven't mentioned it before is a huge landmark in the center of Florence. It is an enormous cathedral with a beautiful baptistery across from it dedicated to St. John the Baptist (Florence's patron saint). It was very neat. The mass was in English and there was no music.. they said everything. It was kind of odd. The mass only lasted around 40 minutes too... also very strange for being in one of the most Catholic countries in the world. But it was a really great experience. After mass, we had drinks and apertivo with our friend Lacey. It was a great, great night!! 

Sunday we went horseback riding through Tuscany. Now this was cool. We met at the train station at 9:30 and our tour guide, Peter took us to the Chianti region of Tuscany (between Florence and Siena). He pointed out the largest monastery in Northern Italy and other interesting things. He told us that the farm with the horses was all family owned and operated still. They had horses, pigs, lots of dogs and cats, vineyards and olive trees. It was so fun to just ride through the vineyards and the beautiful Tuscan countryside... truly like a dream come true!! Next we went to an old castle about 10 minutes away. This castle belonged to Siena many years ago and was eventually taken over by Florence. The walls and buildings inside still remain and have not been rebuilt ever. It was very authentic and very cool. We had a three course meal and wine inside the castle, then went to a winery and did a wine tasting. I bought a bottle of white to bring home, that I think my roommates may have called dibs on?? I'm not sure yet :) This was one of my favorite days in Italy so far. It was seriously so much fun and something not everyone is able to experience. I had a great time and also learned a lot too. I would recommend it to anyone going to Italy... is was a great time!! 

Right now I am sitting in a cafe eating an apricot filled pastry... its really delicious!! I am about to go meet Nate who is in Florence just for the day. We will probably go out to dinner tonight and go to the Beatles bar again. I am very excited!! On Thursday my roommates and I leave for the Amalfi coast!! Look for another blog about it next week!! 

ti amo molto!! ciao!

Kimmy