J Crew Flip Flops Were Not Made for Walking

Ahh Firenze!! My new summer home!! WOW, that is all I can say is WOW!!

I have been here for less than a week now, but it already feels like a lifetime. First Italian adventure...trying to figure out the train system they have here. Thankfully, while wandering around aimlessly in the Pisa airport, attempting to get on a train to Florence, a nice British couple assisted me with my luggage and my directionally challenged self.

After a day of sleeping, I checked in with my program and arrived at my apartment, which is BEAUTIFUL!! Ten minutes from the Duomo, fifteen minutes from Santa Croce, and gelaterias everywhere in sight...yeah, my life is a little rough right now :) My roommates are great!! We have already had so many fun adventures in our short time together, but no worries, details to come. Our first night, we went to a bar called the Fish Pub, and you better believe we showed them how fun Americans are!!

Over the course of the past five days, I have eaten gelato 2 times, have been lost 3 times (once for about an hour), have experienced Italian dancing in 4 new bars, have added 5 new blisters to my feet, and have 6 new roommates that I love. Life is pretty great right now!

Yesterday's adventure was to Verona, aka the place where Romeo and Juliet took place. Although the highlights of the trip were writing a letter to Juliet (yes, like the movie), hiking to a Roman Theater that wasn't there, visiting two beautiful churches, and watching one of my roommates eat it on the stairs, my favorite part of the trip was this adorable open aired market we went to while we were there.

It had everything you could want. We began the day eating delicious homemade pastries, sampled cheese and olives, and then went back to enjoy homemade rice balls filled with cheese, spinach, meat sauce, anything you could want basically. They were DELICIOUS!! Another cool thing, was the homemade beer one tent was selling. It was very nice and refreshing on a hot Italian day. 

Well, that is all for now. Gotta start resting up because my classes start tomorrow!!

Today's Italian word is...piacere (pronounced pee-a-cherr-ay), which means nice to meet you!!