Florence, Tuscany & Montepulciano

After our trip to the beach we only had a few days before we embarked on our big week long trip to Southern Italy with our entire group. I was really excited to travel with the group for a change. It's nice having the option to hang out with a variety of people and branch out, so I was really looking forward to this aspect. All in all, the trip was fantastic and I want to include as much as possible but unfortunately that would be really hard. So many things happened on this trip! It was a blast and I really can't imagine remembering every single story, but I shall do my best!

Piazza in Florence

Our first stop on the week long trip was Florence. I was so incredibly excited to get to Florence because it is one of those places that people tell you that you must go to. Yes, Florence was beautiful. I would even dare to say breathtaking. The city was gorgeous and the streets were filled with people. It had a fantastic view of the city from the gardens, where a beautiful Romanesque church happens to be located. I am talking about the city of the Medici family and Machiavelli and Michelangelo and many, many famous people from the Renaissance and so forth. This is the city where THE David was commissioned and produced for Cosimo Medici. It has beautiful stone streets and the night life is incredible. I loved that city the most at night because that's when it felt the most alive to me. In the day the streets were packed with American tourists and it was really hard to walk without being slammed with people. Not to say, I didn't enjoy Florence during the day, but the nights were warm and people were roaming the streets enjoying musicians playing in the streets & the like.

Copy of Michelangelo's David

We spent two night in Florence. The first night we only had our group dinner and then a bunch of us went out to walk around the city. The next day we saw some of the major sites including the duomo and basilica along with the main piazza  that has a replica of David, the archaeological museum, and the gardens. The duomo was absolutely gorgeous. It is decorated in red and green marble and has the most intriguing facade and of course the dome of the duomo is unreal. Plus this is the area where a lot of people gather along with the piazza. This is literally the center of life in Florence. My friend Marty and I went with our professor, Dr. Bugh, to the archaeological museum after we finished our main site reports. Unfortunately I did not get to see the Francois Vase, which was very tragic to me, but I did get to see the chimaera! It was absolutely fantastic! This is probably the finest piece of existing Etruscan work and it's in Florence. It is a bronze chimaera and if you don't know anything about Greek myth, the chimaera is a vicious creature that is part lion, part goat, and part snake that roams the area of Lycia and was eventually slain by the Greek hero Bellerophon.

Chimaera

After the archaeological museum, Marty & I headed to the gardens which was a bit of a hike to get to. We had to cross the bridge which crosses the Arno River and then walk all the way up to the gardens. The best part is that the gardens have the mot fantastic view of the city. You can see everything. It is so picturesque. We kept hiking up so we could see the San Miniato al Monte basilica. Italy probably has some of the best churches because they span from so many time periods that date all the way back to Constantine, etc. Anyway after we walked through the basilica we made our way back down through the city and walked along the streets. We eventually made our way to an Irish pub because it advertised free wireless internet & I had yet to contact family. So we sat down at the bar and ordered beer and watched the Barcelona soccer match against Arsenal. It was a lot of fun especially since Marty actually knows about soccer. We then left and walked across the Ponte Vecchio, which is a bridge that dates back to the medieval times. It is known for having jewelry markets all along the bridge as well as souvenirs. I finally had my first gelato, yes yes yes I know that's a sin but it's been so cold so I wasn't in the mood for ice cream!

New Moon posters in Montepulciano

The next morning we left beloved Florence for the great city of Rome. First we stopped at this tiny little town in Tuscany called Montepulciano. Apparently they are known for their wine and also part of the movie Twilight: New Moon was filmed here. It was such a quaint little town and I really enjoyed roaming through the town. Everyone was so friendly in the town and it was sunny and perfect. We only had an hour to see the town, so we didn't have a whole lot of time to see it all. I did have pretty amazing pizza and the wine is good!

Tuscany 

Where soul meets body

Okay, so I pretty failed at updating this big time! I know I have so much to share too! Unfortunately my excuse is schoolwork has been dragging me down. It may not seem like a legit excuse, but seriously, it has really taken a toll on my energy and time management. You may ask, but Erin you seem to have copious amounts of time to talk to me on facebook chat or on the internet...how is this? Well, the thought of sitting down and going through each trip and trying to upload pictures can be a bit of a pain, plus it often takes me over an hour to do a proper update. I do put a lot of time into my entries and I try to make them as beautiful and entertaining as possible.

Enough excuses! Where have I been? What have I been doing? Well, a simpler question may be: what haven't I been doing?

Okay so Amsterdam was a successful trip, even though it was hard to plan an entire week with four people. It was a good learning experience, so I will leave it at that. After Amsterdam I didn't really do a whole lot of major travelling. We had a lot of work the following two and a half weeks following spring break, so I spent most of it focusing on the mountains of work I needed to get done.

Orange trees in Viareggio

The weekend before the Southern Italy trip, Matt, Kelly, & I went to Viareggio Beach in Italy. It was actually Easter weekend, which made travelling on the trains a pain. They were absolutely packed, but we managed to get to Viareggio and spent the next two nights on the beach. The first night we checked into our hotel, which Kelly was not supposed to be in but we managed to sneak her in, and then we walked on the beach at night. It was absolutely amazing. I have been dying to be on a beach for so long since I've been in Switzerland, and now that the weather in getting warmer I have beach fever more than ever. We sat on the beach and drank a beer and stared at the ocean. It was the most rewarding end to travel to be able to stare out at the ocean and just sit in the sand. The smell of the ocean is one of the best in the world. We ended our night watching Italian tv in bed and going to bed early.

Pisa

The next day we did a morning/early afternoon trip to Pisa which was only thirty minutes away. You can't really pass up the Leaning Tower of Pisa when it's so close. So we trekked our way there by train and walked through the town of Pisa until we got to the church complex. Well, as for the tower...there is definitely a lean to it haha. It was such a beautiful day so it was perfect to see a world famous monument.  The church complex was really gorgeous and the Leaning Tower was pretty cool. Other than the church complex, Pisa is pretty small and it's a pretty little town but there isn't a whole lot to see there. So we decided to head back to Viareggio and go straight to the beach, plus we had been craving laying on the beach. We literally got off the train and walked straight to the beach. It was windy but it was rewarding to be able to lay in the sand with the sun out and hear the ocean. I didn't go swimming, but I managed to run in up to my knees/thighs. It wasn't so cold, but I wasn't about to dive in. We stayed on the beach all day and listened to music. It was fantastic. We went back to the hotel to change for dinner and then we watched the sunset over the ocean, which is actually a treat since I live on the east coast in the states so the ocean never sets over the ocean.

We left the next day but we got a bite to eat at a cafe before we jumped on the train.