Kylie's Ab-raad!: Catching up in Florence

The last two weeks have been an awesome time of rest and recovering from the crazy schedule of the last two months! We've had art classes and museum visits in the mornings and some afternoons, and have been free to explore and relax throughout some afternoons and most evenings. This beautiful schedule has lent itself to getting 8 hours of sleep a night (yay!), enjoying both the classy, academic museums and history of Florence, and getting to run along the river/park, go to see movies, hunt down amazing restaurants, go wine tasting in the Chianti Valley, and explore the city. Needless to say, its been a nice, relaxing two weeks.

We've paused our classes from the beginning of the semester and are taking an Italian art class... complete with water colors. It's been confirmed that art is not my strong point, but I've enjoyed spending afternoons playing around with the water colors and learning the history and technique behind the art that we are seeing in the museums. A lot of the places we've gone in Italy don't allow cameras/pictures, but I've included a few museum pics below!

I'm also rooming with Corrine and Michele. Corrine has been one of the biggest blessings of this trip for me, so living with her has been fabulous, and Michele has been amazing to get to know. Basically - I couldn't have picked better roommates for this leg of the trip. And, were in a hall with a bunch of the other girls, which has been making us reminiscent of Page!

Random picture from Rome that I found in my Florence folder!

On our way to Florence from Rome, we spent a few hours in Orvieto. Westmont's sister school, Gordon, has an art program there, so we got to meet up with a few friends from Westmont who are on their program now. I got to see Katie!

View from the side of the river in Florence. We're in the main area, about 3 minutes away from the big Duomo (church), which is a fantastic location. But there is also an escape a few minutes away where you can look at this for about a mile on your way to a huge park where we've been running in the mornings. Not so bad, huh? :)

In the park, playing football (getting eaten alive by bugs!)

Exterior of the Duomo in Pisa!

Interior of the Baptistry in Pisa

Being that kid.

Ladies in front of the leaning tower!

Scott and I went out to Cinque Terra last weekend so that he could show me one of his favorite places from his trip this summer. It's been rainy/stormy a lot of our time in Florence, and it was a little murky in Cinque Terra as well. But seeing the city was awesome after all that he has told me about it! It was kind of a ghost town because its "off-season"and the trails inbetween the 5 cities were actually closed, so we stayed in the main city (Monterosso). We snuck onto one of the trails for a little while when it cleared up and got to see some of the other cities in the distance, which was beautiful!

Outside Santa Croce

This is Jess. Jess' mom went on Europe Semester years go and sent Jess with the recommendation to always take the stairs to avoid getting fat on this trip. Therefore, in befriending Jess, you commit to walking up WAY too many stairs (we are on the 4th floor of this hotel). She's worth it though, we just felt the need to document.

On our way to the Chianti Valley to go wine tasting! Jess, Corrine and I met up with one of Corrine's friends, Derek. He's a student at Westmont and studying in Seville for the semester, but was traveling through Italy with his cousin and friend for the week. Because of our "wine/castle" tour in France, we decided to go for it and ended up on a family-owned vineyard with awesome wine and the most incredible olive oil I've ever had. I didn't take a group pic while we were there - but I'll try to steal one from Derek and post it soon!

Jess and I on the top of the Duomo in Florence. We had been waiting all week for a clear night and finally climbed the 463 stairs to the top to watch the sun set :)

Out for drinks at Hard Rock Cafe with Hayley. Everyone speaks english there and they play Sweet Home Alabama, Don't Stop Believing, and everything good and clique American. They also have ice in their sodas and free refills... its the little things :) We've all become regulars over the last two weeks.

On Halloween, a few of the men decided to swap outfits and be one another. If you have ever been on Europe semester, you understand that we all now know every piece of clothing that each other person has and can identify something new or borrowed in seconds (hello, 1 suitcase). And, buying new clothes and then transporting them after Halloween isn't the best idea (45lb suitcases!) So they swapped clothes, mannerisms, quirks, and girlfriends for the day. Well played.

Inside of the Lorentian Library

On Halloween, we went to the "American Diner" in Florence. I know it's bad that were in Italy and are hunting down the Hard Rock Cafe and the American Diner, but its very comforting to eat normal food, so judge us all you want :)

It was wonderful. They had free "American coffee" (coffee here is either cappucinos or espresso) and we had burgers, omelets, soup, juices, and Halloween candy!

Later that night, we had a Halloween party. Jackie and Steve, two of our leaders, are very lovable and have very distinctive roles/quirks on the trip. So Jess and Corrine decided to be them for Halloween. Jackie is the provider of all maps, whatever city we are in or you might be traveling to. And Corrine rocked Steve's famous raincoat and mannerisms the whole night.