Has it been one week already???

Hello All!

Sorry for the delay in updates. I trying to be on the computer as little as possible and when I am online the connection is quite pesky.

Florence is so wonderful! I am always pleasantly surprised every time I turn on a new street I haven't seen before. There are the cutest shops, and the PRETTIEST jewelry I've ever seen... aka i'm hoping i'll have some money left at the end of my trip to buy myself something.

Sunday some friends and I took a day trip to Cinque Terre, which was about 3 hours from here buy train. It is composed of 5 small towns linked together by hiking trails, boats and train rides. It was absolutely breath taking. We had the mountains on one side of us and the ocean on the other. It was totally worth the 3 hours of sleep we got (we had to be at the train station at 7 in the morning), our group being totally unprepared for a day of physical activity, and being so deliriously tired on the train we certainly lived up to the "obnoxious american" title.

Today our school group hiked to the "top of Florence" to the Piazza Michelangelo, which was stunning. On top of the hill was a beautiful church, the name is slipping my mind at the moment, but it was incredible.

My painting class is going well. It is pretty intimidating and a lot of work, but I'm hoping I will learn to really enjoy painting. There aren'y any masterpieces in the works or anything, but it has potential to be a fun hobby.

Tomorrow is a big Italian holiday, and there will be fireworks over the Arno River... this will be my supplementary fourth of july I suppose, haha!

This weekend is Verona and Lake Garda, can't wait!

AND, visitors next week! woo hoo!

Ciao!

Audrey