Adventures

On Friday, the Hirsch family was in town (our family friends), and took me out to dinner at a wonderful restaurant. It was so great to be with family friends and people from home. THe conversation was so light-hearted and fun (which is obvious is you know their family). Afterwards, Zack and Dakota came out with me and the other girls from the program. We had some wine and caught up while we waited for the night to begin. We went to a american bar in the Santa Croce area of florence which would have been sketchy if we didnt know the guys we were with. We ended up running into a kid from Vandy there which was so much fun! We were all having so much fun that we lost track of time and ended up getting home around 5am. oooppss.

On Saturday, Christa and I struggled to get out of bed and rushed to the train station to make it to our train to Lucca on time. We met up with 3 other girls and had a blast in the cute little town of Lucca. We walked around the city and on the wall that surrounds the city for about 5 hours. We stopped for lunch at the cutest plaza and had so much fun hanging out. Italy is definitly about spending time eating and enjoying the scenary. The restaurant had a sign that said "good wine, great friends" which sums up our trip so far!

Sunday was by far my favorite day! We woke up super early to go to Cinque Terre (five towns that hug the coastline and are connected by hiking trails). We got to the first town which was gorgeous in itself and started the hike. Literally every single view was beyond beautiful. We took soo many pictures but it was hard to resist when you were standing in awe of the sight. The first 3 towns were my favorite just because the last 2 were really touristy. We stopped for lunch in the third town and found a back road with a cafe to have lunch at. For 3 Euros I had the BEST lunch of my life. It was a pesto and motzarella pannini. The region is known for their pesto and its much deserved. Christa and I bought a bottle of it to share for our apartment and we've already had pesto pasta with it twice!

Today we had our first day of classes. They are long but not too painful. We're headed to the grocery store now and then to the main piazza for Italy v. Paraguay game in the world cup! GOOO ITALLIAA!!!