I JUST love the colors!
Firenze
Puccini concert
HA!
Il Duomo!
Hercules statue in Firenze
Fountain in Milano
Il Duomo di MilanoOne thing i love most about being here with some of the most wonderful people, is making meals together. Planning, shopping, cooking, and enjoying good conversations, all which ends up taking 3 hours. This morning we made pancakes and fresh-squeezed orange juice in the German kitchen of course, because they have all the good appliances! Now i was planning on being productive and getting some work done, but then i remembered the last time I updated was 2 weeks ago. And there is much to tell!
The weekdays aren't too exciting. Two weekends ago was the big festival for the seige of Leiden. It was crazy here! Pretty much the entire town was shut down for a huge fair, complete with a rollercoaster and other really crazy carnival rides. The streets were lined with venders selling all sorts of goodies. The festival lasted all weekend, and ended with a fabulous display of fireworks (not as good as Ashland of course) although they were so close, the smell of burning stung your nose and you could even feel the ashes.
Two girlfriends and I went into Amsterdam and went to the Anne Frank House. It is was very depressing, but so impressive all the remains from the house and of Anne's belongings. Before we went, we got stroopwaffel mcflurries. Which are the most amazing food item (besides straight-up stroopwaffels) and I want to petition Mickey D's to sell them EVERYWHERE. I did have a picture of it but it's nowhere to be found... :(
Last Saturday Peter and I traveled to ITALIA! We flew into Milan and walked around and enjoyed the sights (or lack there of) Il Duomo di Milano was really huge. Then we took the train to Florence and of course, ate pizza as soon as we got there. So much delicious gelato, i had two per day. We wanted to go to a squash festival, but it was way too far out, and we just ended up spending the day in a small town called Lucca, eating pasta and gelato. I bought a nice leather wallet, my one little splurge of the trip (amazing that i didn't spend more!) I also went to the top of a tower and could see out over the town. Those were some of my favorite views. At the last minute we decided to go to an opera concert with two singers who were singing Giacomo Puccini (Italian composer) songs. It was incredible! Lucca was a very quaint little place. Back in Firenze, we did lots of walking and leather shopping in the street markets. Il Duomo was the most amazing cathedral. I can't imagine walking to school or work and not have my jaw drop to the floor by seeing it. The inside was not so impressive, but the outside sure was. I went to the Uffizi gallery and saw such amazing statues and paintings. The building itself is gorgeous, and the exhibit selection is really nice, lots of Jesus and Madonna. il piazzale michelangelo had the most gorgeous views, even though the sunset was non-existent, we got some nice shots. seeing all of the rooftops, so orange, it was just so beautiful. So in a nutshell, Italia is beautiful and I need to go back, especially to the south! Where it is actually warm. And eat my weight in pastas, gelato, pizza. Grom is the best gelato too, if you ever go, it's the place to be.
Ciao ciao
