Vacation Week (June 20-28)

This vacation week marks week 7. It's crazy that the time has gone by so fast. This past week dad came to visit. We spent the week in Rome, Florence, and Cinque Terre. He came on Saturday June 21. We spent the first day in Ariccia and got adjusted to the time change.

Rome (June 22 & 23)

The first day we took the train from Albano to Rome, bought our Roma passes then went to Vatican City. We got there just in time to see the Pope giving a blessing to ALL the people in St. Peter's Square. The place was packed! We could see the Pope from his window of his study where he delivered the blessing in Italian, Spanish, French, and English and probably some other languages as well. This was my first time to visit the Vatican City, how cool is it to say that you got "blessed" by the Pope!

From the Vatican City we went to Capitoline Hill, the Roman Forum, and the Colosseum. Italy turned on the heat switch this past week. I don't think I have ever sweated so much in my life. When in Rome...

The next day in Rome we went to the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, and alot of Piazza's.

Florence (June 24 & 25)
We took an early train from Albano to Rome, then took the nice Eurostar train to Florence. I love the nice, air conditioned, spacious trains! Once we arrived in Florence, we checked into our hotel and spent most of the day around the Duomo and the leather markets. The first night while we were in Florence, there was a great firework show that we watched on the bridge looking at Ponte Vechio. The second day in Florence, we went to the Uffizzi and the Academia. That night we met up with one of my high school friends Sarah Ellen, that has been studying at the University of Florence.

Cinque Terre (June 26 & 27)

From Florence we took a train to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is five coastal villages that you can hike/ take train in between each. It is a little more of an adventurous beach town, but is growing to a be a touristy destination. Once we got there we (dad) lugged up our luggage up a hill to our very small hostel type of room. From there we went kayaking in the Meditteranean Sea! It was gorgeous to see the town (Riomaggiore: the town that we stayed in) from the sea. That night we had dinner with another girl in my program and her family. It was a pretty sweet cafe with a big tv set outside to watch the Russia vs. Spain futbol game.

The next day we hiked through the villages mainly to find mom a painting, but also to see the beautiful landscapes of Cinque Terre.

Travel back to Rome (June 28)

Yesterday, we spent the whole day taking 3 trains to get back to Rome/ Ariccia. We had a great local Italian meal in Ariccia. Then dad packed up all his luggage and lots of mine to take back.

What the journey looks like from here...

I have five weeks left. This upcoming week we have class for 3 days and a field trip to the Vatican City. For the Fourth of July weekend, I am actually going back to Cinque Terre with the group for an optional trip. We will also be stopping in Lucca and Pisa. Then the following weekend I am going to Lake Como with the group as another optional trip.

So that is the gist of what is going on...I left out one detail...before this vacation week we went to Milan for 4 days with the group. I would have put up a blog about Milan, but I didn't really care for it so there wasn't anything really good to say haha!