Italy: Day Six

We were in Florence for the second day now and because of the size of the city and our amount of free time to see it, we all knew our way around. We had an informal walking tour around the city and saw alot of things that we had seen already but didnt quite know the importance of just yet. We went to the Casa Buonarotti, Bargello National Museum and the Uffizi Gallery. The third of the musuems was the biggest one we went to I spent two hours in the building and saw about a sixth of the works. I had to leave that afternoon because this was my only free time to go to the leaning tower of Pisa. It was a hour and a half train ride and then a twenty minute bus ride to get to the big gate. There was a bigger two story building and then poking out behind it was the Tower of Pisa. It wasnt as tall as I had imagined. It was about five-ish stories. But it was leaning alot, like I had expected. This was my first taste of traveling by train on my own. A girl named Ricki and I went and had a blast. There were subpost to be more of us going but some people wanted to be in the museum longer. At this point we had seen about three museums. It really made me annoyed and tired of them all together was I was glad to leave an hour beofre most people. They got to the city of Pisa when it was raining and Ricki and I were eating under a restauarants roof. The girls decided to walk all the way there and that was difinitely bad. They just happen to walk by while we were eating. We took pictures before the rain had came but then other girls weren't soo lucky, I dont think. When we got done eating we traveled back to Florence and to the hotel to sleep. The next day was packed full of excitement.

Italy: Day Five

We got up early like always and had breakfast. We all headed to the train station after to catch a train to Florence. It took a couple hours but not too bad. Once we got into Florence we went to the hotel and got a little break. We met up in the lobby for lunch time and walked as a group down to the city center. It was only about a twenty minute walk and we passed the train station on the way. The city center was home to a huge church, which is called the Duomo. It is covered with marble of green, pink, and white shades. It is sooo beautiful. Next to the Duomo is a huge bell tower that matched the church’s famous design. We had about two hour free time for lunch before we had to meet up and go to museums. By this time I was almost worn out on museums. There was a big tent market that stretched throughout the city and down a couple streets near the city center. I spent my lunch time shopping and bargaining the merchants out of their money. It is a lot easier to do for the girls in our group than for the boys, or so I have heard. After shopping we met up and went to the tombs of the most famous royal family of Florence, the Medici. In one building, which had two chapels, there are the tombs of ten of the royal line. The tombs and chapels were designed by Michelangelo. They were beautiful just like all his other work. After that we went to a museum called Accademia, which is where Michelangelo studied while he was young. The Accademia held his David statue, which was about twenty feet high. It was so very beautiful. I was shocked. Then after that we went to the Church of Santa Croce. Which I don’t remember much about at all and I believe it was because they packed some many activities in each day. Daniel took us to a local restaurant for dinner which again was covered my mom and dad.

Italy: Day Four

Day Four, Wednesday: We got up and had a full free day planned in Rome. The whole group had planned to go see the city of Pompeii so we ask Daniel to take us. We got a train to Naples and then we transferred trains to reach Pompeii. We got on the wrong train by accident and landed in Sollerno, a Mediterranean Sea town. It was so beautiful and so amazing. It was a blessing in a mistake because we were not going to go here or anywhere to see the sea at all. I was sooo excited! It was beautiful. There wasn’t any sand but just huge rocks then the sea and also in view were the Alps that go down the country of Italy also. It was soo beautiful. It was a small beach town and it was really nice to see a small town verses the big city life we have been spending the whole trip in.

Italy: Day Three

We got up and went to the city center and met up with our tour guide. We went to Michelangelo’s house. We didn’t find out till after that it was actually not his house but his descendents bought the house after he had passed away. We later went to the Galleria Borghese and spent the late morning and early afternoon. We had the afternoon free so Erin, Abby and I spent the day shopping and site seeing. I only got a couple things in Rome. My patch and print were musts but other than that there wasn’t really good shopping in Rome. Later that night we all went to a square after dinner and heard loud music so we ran to investigate. There was a big concert and DJ that was sponsored by a Christian outreach group. We had a dance party till we worked off all our dinner in sweat and then decided it was time to go home and sleep!!

Italy: Day Two

We got up early every morning to start off the day site seeing. The breakfasts at the hotels in Italy were not very good at all. They made me very appreciative of the breakfast in Vienna. We went to the Vatican Museum and spent a couple hours there. We saw the Sistine Chapel and Raphael’s School of Athens. We also went to St Peter Cathedral. It was huge and amazing. It is the biggest Christian church in the world and on the floor they have markings of where the other big churches in the world compare. After that we went to the Catacombs of San Callisto. We went underground and had a tour. I was walking were they had buried Christians, about 500,000 to approximate. It was a little scary for me because of the dark and also the dark holes where the bodies were kept. The Catacombs were about four stories underground and they had lots of secret passageways and they also had Chapels for worship. After the Catacombs we went back to the hotel and rested. We ended up going out that night in groups and I saw the Pantheon. We also saw Raphael’s tomb inside it, to the right of the main altar. It had tons of lights on it and couples were standing all around taking pictures.

Italy: Day One

We were on the overnight train until about 830 in the morning. We got breakfast and it was pretty gross but I drank the coffee and eat the hard roll because I was so hungry at this point. Once we got into Rome we met our tour guide, Roberta. She was little and kind of crooked but very cute! We went straight to the Baths of Caracalla which were amazing. The Romans used aqueducts for their water supply to drink from but they also used them for the baths. The Baths of Caracalla had exercise rooms, spa rooms, and libraries. There were three different kinds of baths: hot, warm, and cold. After the Baths we went to the Colosseum or Coliseum. Apparently in the different languages there are different spellings. Right in front of the Colosseum there was the Arch of Constantine from when He declared Rome a Christian Empire. The Colosseum was my favorite because in my four years of Latin in high school we learned so much about all the old Roman buildings. Next we went to the Roman Forum, which I have seen a movie about in Latin class; it was very torn down but still impressive. We saw the Arch of Titus, Temple of Vista, Temple of Caster and Pollex. All the ruins in the Forum were very indistinguishable but it was neat to just know what was there and how things were set. After the long tour we were taken to the hotel outside the city a little bit and we had some time to ourselves. We meet up in the lobby later and all went to dinner where our travel agent had set up. His name is Daniel and he helps us with planning our weekend trips and he also changed my ticket so I may go to Greece in December. He had set up the trip to where the money my parents, (Thanks Daddy and Mommy) had paid for program fees took us out four times over the ten day Italy trip. We had two meals in Rome, one in Florence and one in Sienna.

Weekend before Italy

I spent my Friday with my friend Cari names. She is super sweet. She is a full timer Lipscomb, kindergarten which just means that she has gone there since. I find that crazy but interesting I guess. Her grandparents, come to find out, know my Grandparents on my fathers side. What a small world? Cari and I went shopping and out to eat together and then came back to the hotel to hangout with the whole group. We had movie night in the Hortons room, which is the suite on the seventh floor of the old building in the hotel. I say that because since we have been here they have opened their new building to costumers. I stayed up late and did laundry here in the hotel, which isnt aloud but the laundry mats are sooo expensive. I just hand wash my things. I have come to realize that I have too many clothes, I wish I would have jsut brought one small bag.

On Saturday I got to sleep in a bit, I just set an alarm to remind myself of breakfast. I have recently been eating a good breakfast, eat lunch/dinner in mhy room to save money. Afterwards I did Pilates with Leah and then began to pack our bags. We both took showers and loaded up our bags. As we waited untill it was time to walked to the train station for our overnight train the girls and I decided to go shopping. I didnt buy anything but I was a good way to pass the time. While we were out, Leah got her shirt caught on a hanger in a store and ripped a big hole in her shirt. Thankfully it wasnt a favorite shirt. We had happened to be at an H&M was she jsut bought a vneck tee shirt. Afterwards we gabbed some food then we went back to the hotel. I will tell you about our over night train in a seperate post. I will have to speadout my blogging or my fingers will fall off haha.

Week Three

I had I packed week. I didnt have time to blog because I had two test that week and also had to prepare for Italy. I had a good week though. I went shopping at the Maria Hilfer Strasse again which is always good. I also went to a few new places around Vienna. One night to study for my Christianity within the visual arts class, some girls and I went to Kaffe Frauen Huber. I was a older place and I loved the coffee there. I also went to a place my friend from the hotel suggested, Vapiono. It was an awesome Italian place. You can go up to different counters according to what you want to eat and then step my step tell them want you would like to eat. And the prices are pretty good. It is my favorite place to eat in Vienna so for. One day for class we went back to the Art History Musuem, Kunst Historche. We spent the day looking at the different kinds of painting from different periods of history. Then later than afternoon, a group of us went to a new park, Uberlaa. We have been going to different places in Vienna for school credit and also for fun. We go to three new places a week. This park than beautiful flowers and at the top of the hill had lawn chairs that folded all the way down. They were sooo comfortable and the weather was soo fall ish. I spent some time out and about that week but since I had a Bible and German test that week I didnt do as much as I have been really.