I thought it was about time I finalized my travel blog. I have been back in the U.S. for almost two weeks. My last days in Italy were so wonderful and amazing. I checked out of my Tuscan hostel and said goodbye to my roommates. I checked into The Hotel Derby in Florence, with a beautiful view of the city, especially the Duomo. I relaxed a little on the rooftop and then went to further explore Florence. I walked over the Ponte Vecchio looking mostly at the scenery. I walked along the river to discover some new amazing sites but [View Full Entry]

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I spent the day wandering around Florence alone. It was very beautiful and peaceful. I went to the flea market and rubbed the boar's nose for luck, I visited St. Croce and I went to see David. I waited in line for two hours but it was definitely worth it. It was beautiful, the statue is just amazing, so tall it definitely commands the room. I took a few pictures even though you are not supposed too, but I had to have one for myself. After David I wandered upon another amazing church, St. Maria Madelene. There was a small chapel [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday I was going to have a relaxing day as I have been going nonstop. I woke up early and went on a trek through the Tuscan mountain side which was beautiful and amazing. I still can't believe I am here. My hostel is a bit far away from Florence so I thought I would take it easy and then explore my surroundings. It was cloudy and a bit rainy which made my exploring more difficult. The nearest town is 15 minutes by bus and there isn't much there short of a great wine shop where I tasted and bought [View Full Entry]

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My blogs will now be less frequent as I no longer have free internet, but I wanted to share a little bit about my weekend. It took almost all day but we arrived in the beautiful town on Vico Equense. We took many wrong trains but ended up on a camp ground staying in a bungalow. Thats right folks I said camping. We shared our bungalow with many spiders who met their fate. We walked to the square that was beautiful and right on the sea. You could see Capri. It was amazing. We lost most of our group to [View Full Entry]

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My last days in Rome have been amazing. We spent a rainy day at a Catacomb, which was very creepy and felt sad to me. But I am glad I had the experience. Then we went to Ostia Antica which was amazing and I think is a good prelude to Pompeii. We went on a tour in the rain and then were free to explore the ruins. There is something so beautiful about seeing the way people lived thousands of years ago, everything was so simple and beautiful. You could almost imagine them in their daily lives. The next day [View Full Entry]

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As you can see from the picture I had an opportunity of a lifetime yesterday. On a wing and a pray, or with intention depending on your view, I went to Teatro Sistina with no ticket to see Tori Amos just the hope that I would at least get to see her during the meet and greet. So I found the theater and stood there with all of the usual suspects and some other crazy Tori people who spoke Italian. I wasn't sure I would get a chance to talk to her but then I was pushed to the front. [View Full Entry]

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I spent the day alone yesterday and it was wonderful and much needed. I woke up late with no alarm. I decided to go to this cafe I read about so I got on the bus and headed towards the cafe. After a few wrong turns, I reached my destination. It was a wonderful cappuccino, the man made a happy face heart in my foam:) I decided to go wherever the wind took me so I wandered around and ended up at Piazza Novano again, I am drawn there. I sat for awhile and then wandered some more. The wonderful [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday my new friends and I went to Florence for the day. We had our first whole day off from school, after a full day of presentations. Which by the way, my group presentation was great. It was a great topic, sexualization of children, a great group and a fantastic powerpoint. I am a big a school nerd so I just thought I would add that. Back to Florence. We woke up at the crack of dawn, which was a struggle since I went out with my cousin Andrea until around 2 am. Not woo hoo out, just a drink [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday was my favorite day so far. We had an interesting class discussion with a Loyola student who is interning in Rome. He works with Autistic children and gave us insight on what that is like in Italy vs. at home. We also talked about social justice which is of great interest to me. Then we went on a bus tour of Ancient Rome. We saw the Colleseum and many other sites from the bus. When we got off the bus we went back to the Trevi Fountain with the rest of our class. We also had allegedly the best [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday was my first day of class. I was a little bit nervous about taking a class at a different, larger university. My roommate said it felt like the first day of Kindergarten. Everyone in the class were wonderful and welcoming. The class itself was very interesting. Many of the students had not taken a policy class so I felt ahead of the game. We really only have 2 classroom days and then many tours. Which is a bonus. We only had two hours between class and dinner so I walked around the neighborhood again. We had a big Italian [View Full Entry]

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