Italia: land of food, food, and more food

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My time in Italy, though not that long, has been great. I started out in Rome and saw most of what there is to see in the city (although I'm sure there are still tons of hidden churched, piazzas, and fountains I didn't see). I walked around to all the sites, so I got a bit of a workout in along with my sightseeing. I absolutely loved Piazza Navona, where there are tons of people, artists, and musicians. It was a great place to people watch and soak in the sun. The Trastevere area was also adorable, with tons of piazzas (what else is new) and cute restaurants. The big tourist attractions were great, but overflowing with people, so I preferred the less popular areas. After 6 days in Rome I went to visit Molly in Umbria. Umbria is right next to Tuscany, so I got to be in the beautiful hills of the Italian countryside for 5 days. This was by far my favorite stop in Italy. For one thing, there were no tourists, yay! Also, being in a home again was a great feeling, especially when there's tons of good food around. The Mullens did a great job at feeding me to excess on a daily basis, but I had no complains about that! I got to try some AMAZING ravioli, pizza (home made in the pizza oven), and of course, wine. When I was there we went to Cortona, which is an adorable walled medieval city and Assisi, which is also a medieval city with a beautifully decorated basilica. Molly and I were very good at lounging around and taking walks the rest of the time. After our time there, Molly and I were off to Florence. We were here together for 2 days, and now I'm here one more day to try to see some sights. The keyword being try. Today was going to be my museum hopping day, but it turns out it's a national holiday, so almost everything is closed! But I've seen most of the piazzas and parks in Florence. And I got to see a nice little protest near the city center. Not too sure what they were protesting since my Italian is quite limited, but there was something about people dying... so it didn't sound too happy. Florence is so cute, but so overrun with obnoxious tourists. Imagine the American who has never left the country and speaks no foreign languages and like to read him/her map in the middle of the sidewalk. Were it not for the tourists (and sleazy Italian men), I'd probably love it, but now I'm ready to go to Switzerland. I'm leaving on a night train to Zurich in a few hours and will be at my grandparents home by tomorrow afternoon!

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