Siena and San Gimignano

On Tuesday of this week, we took our last group trip. We went to Siena and San Ginignano and I have to say I really wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised. In Siena we got to see St. Catherine of Siena's finger and head that are there and then got to tour the city. The city is different from Florence in that it is built in the hills and most of the streets are sloping. We also got to see the race track where they hold the famous horse races every year. The views from the city were also amazing. After being there for a few hours, it got pretty hot and I was ready to go.

San Gimignano was a neat little city on top of a hill. Even though I was exhausted, I still enjoyed it. After getting some gelato from the gelateria that was voted best gelato in the world multiple times, we relaxed and walked around. Just like Siena, San Gimignano had great views. They also had some great leather shops. In Florence, there is a lot of leather but sometimes I find that every single leather shop has the exact same bags. It seemed as though San Gimignano had maybe a little more variety. But overall, there two cities really surprised me in how much I enjoyed them.

Interlaken, Switzerland

This past weekend, we went to Interlaken, Switzerland and it was the most beautiful place I've ever been. We arrived at 3:30 in the morning and were surprised how cold it was. Since we were staying in a tent city, it was damn cold. We woke up and went and got breakfast and then got our day started. We went rafting later that afternoon and it was awesome. The water was freezing, but well worth it. 

After rafting, we were exhausted so we went to bed pretty early. We were smart enough to get a heater in our room for Friday night. We had to wake up early Saturday morning for our Canyoning trip. It lasted from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm and was one of the most fun/toughest things I've done. The water was freezing, but again, well worth it. 

Later that afternoon, El went bungee jumping and had the time of her life. I was going to go with her to take pictures and watch, but they wanted to charge me 50 franks. After Ellen finally got back at about 9:30 pm, we went and met everyone at the Metro, a bar underneath Bamlers Hostel. It was really cool, even though the beer was quite expensive. 

This is our friend Mike. He's studying in Florence too but we met him in Interlaken. On Sunday, we woke up around 9 and had to be out of our room by 10. We had plans to go to one of the lakes but couldn't figure out how to get there and really didn't have enough time. So we just walked around Interlaken and relaxed. With the views, we really didn't mind. We even saw some paragliders come in.

INTERLAKEN IS ALMOST HERE

     The trip we've all been waiting for is almost here. In less than 7 hours, I'll be boarding a bus and heading to Interlaken, Switzerland to have the time of my life. I've already singed up for rafting and canyoning and we'll see if I do anything else. We are staying at Balmers Tent Village for 3 nights. Can't wait to blog after this weekend to share on the experience. I've heard so much about this trip through friends who have gone in the past. I still can't decide on skydiving. Tyler has already signed up and Ellen is bungee jumping saturday from 450 feet, so watching them might give me enough thrill. If I do end up skydiving, I'll experience something like this....

This is my brother, John, skydiving in Interlaken in 2009.

Only 13 more days

     This trip has flown by. It seems like yesterday I was at my brother's wedding and Julien was being born. Time flies when your having fun. On Tuesday, we walked up to the Michael Angelo and watched some guy play the guitar. He goes every Tuesday and we've decided to try to go as much as we can cause he's great and the view at the time of the sunset is amazing.

       On Wednesday, we had a movie night for our Management classes and watched star trek. While the actors were pretty terrible, it was not bad. Another thing that wasn't bad was the food we had. The chicken and potatoes were delicious. After the movie night, we went and met the group at a restaurant for Franco's 20th birthday. After a 3 hour dinner, we headed to TWICE club. That was fun for a while then after I had my "one to many drink," I headed home. 

The Restaurant we ate at.

Florence Fight Club

     After an exhausting weekend, I was pretty ready to relax on sunday. Without any Sunday Night Football, why not some Florence Fight Club? I had heard about this from my brother and decided to check it out. Chris and I woke up decently early Sunday morning to go and try to find tickets, which we finally did after searching for the ticket office for about 30 minutes. So we arrived at the game and didn't really know what to expect. We had watched some video's on how intense it was but really didn't understand until that first punch was thrown. It was pretty much a huge brawl with a little ball involved. I still don't totally understand the game but what I got out of it was you had to bring the ball to the other side without being stopped by the opponent and score the ball in the net. The opponent could punch, tackle, kick, etc. to stop you. Pretty much no rules. It was possibly one of the coolest things I had ever seen.

Job Analysis for Future Spouse

     So my homework assignment is to due a job analysis for my future spouse. Here it goes...

  MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
- Shorter than me (including when they have heels on)
- Confident but open minded
- Not too much of a party animal
- Smart with a college degree and a desire to work, but is not opposed to being a house mom
- Caring, loving, and respectful.

  ADDITIONAL PREFERRED REQUIREMENTS

- Always willing to make a decision; I hate choosing

- Easy going, laid back

- Allows me to have time with my friends; she will get the same privileges 

- Doesn't spend too much money. 

- Family oriented 

- Athletic

- Realizing that women are sometimes wrong (doesn't have to admit that I am right, but is willing to admit she is wrong)

Pisa, Lucca, and Cinque Terre

       On Thursday we had a mandatory trip to Pisa and Lucca. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but Pisa just didn't do it for me. We got there at about 10:30 am and saw the leaning tower of Pisa. After that, I was about done with Pisa. I got my tourist pic with the tower, so I wanted to get out of there.

       Lucca, on the other hand, was a blast. We were only there for a a few hours but we rented bikes then just relaxed. The view from loop around the city was amazing. I also had the best combo of gelato yet, lemon and strawberry mixed. After the bike ride, we were pretty tired and ready to come home. 

      Friday morning we left for Cinque Terre. George, our teacher, barely made the train. He was sweating to say the least. When we got there, we had to search for a place to stay. When we found a bed and breakfast, I was pumped and thought we got a great deal...until I found out everyone else payed about 20 euro less than me. Then we decided to "hike the villages." But, instead of walking on the roads from village to village, we took a train to another village then we hiked back to our place. I now see why the locals said not many tourist do that trail. But, the view was amazing.

       The terrain was pretty tough. 

Florence Grocery Store?

     So we thought we had found the best grocery store yesterday, although it was about a 20 minute walk to our apartment. While their selection was pretty good, the service is NOTHING like it is in America. You're charged for the amount of bags you use to put your groceries in, so we decided to stuff our book sacks and I don't think they liked that. Oh, and forget someone bagging your groceries for you. They were definitely getting aggravated and speaking in Italian to each other cause we were holding the line up bagging our own groceries. But, today El and went for a morning run and decided to go the opposite way we always walk. Of course, there was a grocery store not more than a block away from our house. Then, something we haven't seen since we've been here, a case of beer.

Sexual Harassment - Italy versus United States

    Many women who travel to Italy sometimes experience whistling or staring from Italian men. Many women take this the wrong way but realistically, it should often be taken as friendly flirting. Now, not every case is like this but Italy is much like the U.S. when it comes to the way women are treated. It's just that Italy has a different culture and just because they don't hide their stares behind their sunglasses or wait to look till after the women pass by, doesn't mean they are sexually harassing the women.

Roma

      Rome was a totally different experience this second go round, as I expected. With my family, I got a great tour of the Vatican, the Colosseum, the forums and many other places. This time, we had a much bigger group and it wasn't put on by a private tour guide so it wasn't as enjoyable. But, it was a blast. Even though we had no idea what our "english speaking" tour guide was saying, we had a little too much fun looking at her under arm hair...

      Out of all the things we saw, my favorite might have been the trevi fountain. While it is much smaller than the vatican or the colosseum, it was just as amazing. 

      Besides all the amazing historical structures we got to see, the pub crawl we did had to be the most fun part. For 20 euros, we got free drinks for an hour and a half, and then were brought to two more bars. I've heard from friends that its a really fun thing to do and they were right. We had a big group of about 20 of us so it was great. 

       We were lucky enough to make it to St. Peters Square just in time on Sunday at noon for the popes blessing. Pretty crowded. 

Happy 21st Birthday Alex Simm

     Alexander the great Simm turned 21...even though that means nothing here in Italy. We went out to Golden View Tuesday night and had a blast. Then, we made out way to Club Space last night. It was fun to say the least. This week went by so fast that I just realized today we leave for Rome tomorrow! This will be my second time going to Rome but should be a totally different experience since last time I was with my family and now I'm with all my friends. The last time I was in Rome, I took this picture...

Flood, Wine Tasting, and Planning Interlaken

          This past Sunday was eventful to say the least. While it was raining and hailing, we noticed our courtyard had about 4 inches of rain. Then realized the rain began rushing into our apartment. It was funny at the time  but when we had to clean it up...not so much. We figured out we had to unclog the drain and the problem was solved. 

          After a full day on monday, we finished the day with our first wine tasting. Now I actually have something to think about while drinking wine besides how bad I'm going to feel in the morning. We learned the three steps of identifying the wine are visual analysis, olfactory analysis, and gustative analysis. 

         Coming into this study abroad trip, I knew my one big weekend was going to be a trip to Interlaken, Switzerland. We started booking the trip and we should have about 15 of us going which will be fun. We are going through bus2alps and get to stay at the Balmers Hostel. And, we get a discount since we are bring more than 10 people, which is pretty awesome. Cant wait to skydive (maybe)!

Oh, and I finally got to skype Julien. 

GELATO

This being the second time I've been to Florence, I knew how good the gelato was. But, when we were brought on a tour of the Gelateria, my view drastically changed. The owner of this gelato store take's pride in making all natural gelato. He only uses fruits from right here in Florence, unlike most gelato stores who import them. The taste between this all natural gelato and others was amazing.  

Family business: father and step-son

Even got to see some banana gelato made. Took about 5 minutes. 

Now I know there is no where else that I can go to get gelato. Nothing will compare. 

Golden View, Viareggio, and Pontasseive

You would think being moved tables at the Golden View restaurant because you told them you are using meal vouchers would be a bad thing, but we actually got a private room so we could be the loud Americans we are!

To cure our hangover's, we took a short train ride to the coast of Viareggio to hang out on the beach. This is what I did all day, and loved it...

After sleeping in till about 11 on saturday, we hopped on a train to head to a wine festival in Pontasseive. We arrived during the siesta time so we had a few hours to spare, we got to take a few pictures of the scenery. 

Can't wait for Rome next weekend.

I am officially a Godfather

While having the time of my life here in Italy, my sister delivered her first born child. And I'm the Godfather! Since the phone were having trouble working, I sadly had to find out through facebook...We also met up with the newly weds, John and Leslie.

We finally made it to the other side of the river...

One thing I never do is cook...with the "help" of Frabrezio, we cooked a three course meal. 

It has been an awesome experience so far and I still have 5 weeks to go!