Firenze, ti amo

I love this city. 
I love EVERYTHING about this city.
(except the dog poop on the streets but that I can live with that)
I love being surrounded by the Italian language.
I love the art that is literally everywhere. 
I love that I walk past 500 year old statues on my way to school everyday.
I love my walk to school everyday.
I love the Ponte Vecchio, the Doumo, the Bell Tower, the Baptistry, Piazza Vecchio.
I love Boboli Gardens.
I love San Lorenzo Market.
I love the fruit and veggie vendors on the walk to school.
I love my house and my apartment.

I love that I live in a reality TV show.

I love the little Italian couples.

I love walking everywhere.

I love that Gabriella from my favorite sandwich shop knows exactly what I want.

I love the buildings and the architecture.

I love the green shutters on the buildings.

I love opening and closing my green shutters.

I love the food and the gelato.

I love the tiny cars.

I love/am jealous of the little Italian children I see being dropped off at school everyday.

I love that I know my way around and never used a map.

I love that I can understand most of what people say to me.

I love that tourists stop and ask me for directions- in Italian!

I love the view from my apartment.

I love my Via Romana Family.

I have loved living here.  

I love knowing that I will come back and live here again. 

I love that I looked up minoring in business so I can open an American bakery here one day.

                                       I am completely serious

I love that I was blessed enough to call the place my home for 4 wonderful months.

Firenze, sei sempre nel mio cuore. 

Buongiorno!

How could your day not be great when you wake up and see this every morning? 

Florence, your beauty never ceases to amaze me. 

God, this is what I want my heaven to look like.

Barcelona and Vilanova Spain

Last weekend, I went on my last trip while studying abroad for this semester.  I say that because I am determined to find a way back.  This is just going to be a really quick post because I am currently drowning in all the papers and finals I have this week not to mention leaving Italy depression is beginning to set in.
Well, on a happier note- Spain was beautiful and I loved it.  I am so so glad that I was able to make it there.
So now for some pictures and a brief explanation of what I did!

We left from Florence for Spain at 3 AM which gave us an entire day in Barcelona.

The first thing Kimmie and I did was go see the Temple Exiatori de la Sagrada Familia. It was one of the neatest churches I have ever seen.  We literally looked at if for an hour.

This is the other side of the church.  There are hundreds of statues and different animals carved into it.

Barcelona is an incredibly clean, beautiful, and active city.  We walked into the city center and trough the Arch de Triumph.

Next, Kimmie and I went to this amazing food market. It has won an award for being the best food market in the world!  There was so much fresh fruit.  We bought fruit salad for 1 euro, fresh juice, oranges, grapes, pineapple, and more.  

We wandered around the city and through the streets.  This is La Rambala- the main street.  The trees were beginning to bloom and we have great spring weather.

Then we went to see the Cathedral.  It was also interesting to see but it too was under construction. 

We then walked (and it might be important to note that we were walking with out backpacks that we used as suitcases all over and they kept getting heavier and heavier) to Port Vell and the marina. 

Then we went to where we were staying.  We stayed at a campground that is about 30 minutes outside of the city.  Campgrounds in Europe are so different then the ones in the US.  This one was amazingly nice.  It had a huge grocery store, three outdoors pools, one indoor pool with jets and hot tubs, multiple playgrounds, tennis courts, basketball courts, and soccer fields.  The best part- this entire cabin with a kitchen was only 12 euro a person for the two of us.  AND- you could easily sleep more.  The couches in the living room can be beds and there was a loft where people could sleep.  Talk about a deal!

This was our bedroom. 

Our second day, we went into Vilanova, the town where we were staying, to spend a day at the beach.  The weather was perfect and it was such a great relaxing day.

In the Mediterranean. 

Saturday was our last day.  We went back into Barcelona.  Barcelona is known for its gaudy architecture and this is just one of the buildings that lines the streets. 

We went to Park Guell, which was created by Gaudi.  The wisteria was blooming and it was beautiful. 

Some of the gaudi architecture in the park. 

Such a neat park.  Once again, we had to carry our backpacks everywhere. 

Park Guell is also know for its mosaics.  These are on the ceiling of a covered area in the park. 

The iguana fountain!  It a mosaic and it the symbol of the park. 

We went back to the market for more fruit juice! I was indecisive about whether I wanted kiwi/pineapple or raspberry/pineapple so the lady gave them both to me!  So yummy. 

Our plane didn't leave until 10 at night so we had time to just wonder around the city.  Behind us is a Christopher Columbus statue. Yay USA.

So that was my trip to Spain.  I definitely want to see more of that country one day. 

I don't know if I will have time to blog anymore while I am in Italy, but I am sure I will have time when I get home.  Expect a lot more posts about Europe then!

Amalfi Coast

I am back for a moment since I leave in less than 9 hours for Barcelona!  I am going to do a quick over view of my trip last weekend to the Amalfi Coast.  It was such a beautiful place and I believe that I saw one of the most interesting places in the whole entire world- Pompeii.  Absolutely amazing.
Just look through the pictures to hear more about my trip!  It was awesome and I got a bit tanner :)

Warning: It's really long. I have 40 pictures for this one blog.

This is the town we stayed in, Sorrento.  It was beautiful.  We walked here on the way to the Marina.

View of Sorrento from the Marina

This is in Capri.  We came here on the first day- Friday. 

In Capri, we did a HUGE hike.  The views were stunning but the hike was definitely difficult in a good way.  The water around the island is so pretty. 

Me at the very top of Capri.  I was the only one from my program who came on this trip so I rocked the FSU gear this day :) 

More pictures from the amazing hike.

I met a ton of super nice people.  This is Katie and I by the Blue Grotto.  We hiked to this after we hiked to the top of the island. 

Unfortunately, it was too choppy to go into the blue grotto though.  I guess I will just have to come back one day!

The beach!  I absolutely love the beach.  I collected some pebble sand and a bunch of little pieces of sea glass.  I guess Italian's don't collect sea glass. 

The second day, we went to Napoli in the morning with our tour guide Bruno. He gave a great hour and a half tour of the city.  I am so glad I was able to see this other major city in Italia. 

Milan is known for vendors selling knock-offs and other trinkets on the side of the street.  I didn't buy anything though.

Some of the buildings in Napoli were really pretty. 

Bad part- trash strike in Naples.  This was a very small pile.

Some really pretty building that is now a shopping mall type thing.

The main Piazza in Naples.  It looks kind of like a mini-Vatican. 

The King of Naples Castle! This was neat to see. 

Does this look familiar to anyone? 

It's pizza from the oldest pizza place.  The place has been around for 150 years and it was in Eat, Pray, Love not to mention it was amazing!

After Naples, we came back to Sorrento for a minute.  

Then we went to Positano!  It was beautiful.  These are some of my new friends too! They are from Washington State but are also studying in Florence.  Kelsey, Taylor, and me.

This was too pretty not to post

Here's a view of Positano from the beach! 

And the beach of course!  It was such a beautiful day.

I got into the water about that far.  It was cold!

Sunset on the way back to Sorrento. 

I had a delicious fish dinner in Sorrento. 

We stayed in these super cute little cabins in Sorrento.  Ours was kind of messy but I really liked staying here. My roommates were also really nice.  I had the bed to the far right. 

Our final day we went to Pompeii.  It is definitely the most interesting place I have ever been in my life.  To say I loved it would be an understatement. 

Small theater.  The volcano erupted in 67 AD so this town was preserved super well.  Just image that this is exactly how it looked that long ago.  It's amazing. You literally step back in time and into history. 

Old roads!

A temple. Sorry, I don't remember the name right now

In the brothel 

Walking through Pompeii.  

The main forum area.  This area was actually huge!

You can see a dead doggie in the middle. I like to call this area the home and garden section of Pompeii because it reminded me of Home Depot a bit because of all the pottery, bowls, and vases they found. 

This is sort of sad- the dead man behind me looks like he was praying. 

This is the bakery of the town. 

Mt. Vesuvius in the background 

The Red Room.  Look at the frescos that are STILL there!

The cafeteria. 

Well, that was my weekend and it was amazing!  I loved the Amalfi Coast so much and I am so happy that I went considering that I almost did not.  

Now, I am off to Barcelona in 4 hours.  I will be sure to catch you all later!  I will be back super early Sunday morning. Have an awesome weekend.