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September 7th 2009

Published: September 7th 2009

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AMV

Photo 1

Ciao Bella-

Happy (American) Labor Day Everyone! We, unfortunately, do not celebrate and today is my first official day of classes. I am really excited! Last week, I was in Barcelona for the beginning of the week and then trucked my way on over to Florence.
Barcelona was AMANZING! It is somewhere I will most definitely go back, if not this trip then sometime in the near future.

Getting to Barcelona was not as easy as it could have been. My brother (Q) and I missed out flight from London to Barcelona. Being a first time traveler of Europe, I maybe over reacted. We were stuck in Luton, UK for about 8 hours.
As a side bar, Luton is not a place I would recommend to visit, but it does have a shopping center. At a Best Western, we met a really cool manager who let us rest up on the couches. We finally did catch a flight at night and got into the city at around 10pm.

After getting settled into our hotel, which was on Las Ramblas, we explored the night life and had pizza and beer. Kept it very classy. It was delicious. It was

Barcelona

located within a very lively plaza. People were out eating, drinking and just having a good time.

The next few days Q and I walked around a lot, but we also ate a lot. We had tapas, pastas, chicken, and at one point Henry even had mean loaf. The food was delicious.

Next, Henry and I made our way through Europe and took a plane ride from Barcelona to Milan, we actually made our plane on time, we were even early! My brother is seriously the best brother in the world and he took me all the way to Florence, to ensure I made it there safe.

Needless to say, after about 9 hours of traveling, I was exhausted upon arriving at the Villa.

Since then, I have gone on tours of Sesto (where the Villa is located- 20 minutes out of Florence), Florence and Siena. I have seen beautiful cathedrals, have had some awesome pasta, and I will not comment on how much gelato I have eaten thus far.

I am overall doing very well. I am fortunate in that the program consist of some really good people. Everyone is really nice and I

Barcelona

This is a castle that you can tour

am having a great time. I have added a few photos for you entertainment. So enjoy!

Email me at avilla@wisc.edu!
MISSING EVERYONE!

Amanda

Additional photos below

Photos: 59, Displayed: 23

Barcelona

The Barcelona Cathedral

Barcelona

vespos, motorcycles EVERYWHERE!

Barcelona

A very cool photo of my brother!

Barcelona

This is actually a fountain- the water comes out on the other side. There are a lot of these in Italy as well. Yes- I have drank the water, and yes it is good! all natrale!