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
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