Emily and Cassi had no travel problems and arrived on Saturday (thank goodness at least they made it smoothly). Laura, Kayla, and Kayla had to jump through flaming hula hoops to get here. Their flight in Chicago was completely canceled and that caused them to miss their connecting flight in Denmark. A lot of other unfortunate things happened along their way ( too many instances that should never happen in a row) and when they finally made it to Rome, they were notified that their luggage had been lost. They had to take a train to Florence from Rome and we had no way off getting ahold of them. Basically,we thought they were lost on a train in Italy. They didn't get their luggage back until Wednesday night at 11....it was a mess and a lot of underwear and socks were shared but we made it work and started everything off right with a family style dinner and unlimited wine. We showed them all of our favorite spots in Florence and also went to Rome while they were here. It was perfect timing because they just picked the new pope! If we were in Rome one day earlier we would have been able to be apart of the crazy mob at the Vatican (Laura was able to go because she was visiting her boyfriend who is studying in Rome!). St.Peters was just as amazing to see as it was when I saw it three years ago. Pope Francesco is the bomb! I missed my friends so much and it was so good to see them all!
I didn't have time to be too sad about my friends leaving because Patrick came right after them! Of course he had trouble getting to Florence as well. His flight in St. Louis was canceled so he arrived an entire day later than planned. He also had a delayed flight from St. Louis the next morning and missed his flight in Munich and got to Florence about 5 hours later than planned...and yes, I waited at the train station for him in the morning for almost 2 hours and I thought he was also lost in Italy! No way of communicating has made travels difficult. We were able to still do our day trip to Viareggio after he got here. It was a cute little beach town that would be really fun to go to in the summer. It rained while we were there but we were still able to see the town. During the week I showed him around Florence. I also had midterms, so I actually had to study for awhile for school. Patrick entertained himself while I studied with. 6 pack of Italian sized Budweisers. He was lucky enough to be here for Danielle's 21st birthday and celebrated with us after midterms were over. It was fun showing him around because for once I knew where we were going and he didn't! That was strange.
Even though there were so many travel problems for people who came to visit, I feel so lucky to have friends (and a boyfriend) that would come see us all the way across the ocean. I hope they had a great time!
Pictures are below!
1-3: Family dinner! It was 3 different courses. First was bread and olive oil and balsamic, second was a huge platter of cheese, tomatoes, ham, prosciutto, turkey, salami, eggplant, and peppers. There was also two types of bruschetta. The third course was three different types of pastas. Then they gave us Limoncello to cleanse our pallets..Cassi kindly asked for seconds but was denied.
4-6: Group pictures around Florence
7-9: Some pictures before we went out that night. Apparently we were too loud walking on the street because some mad Italian lady dumped a bucket of water in us..oops.
10-12: Shopping and dinner. The girls went to our leather selling friend Vera. Emily was the only one who wanted to try on a jacket to begin with and they all ended up getting one!
13-14: Pictures from the Treve Fountain.
15-17: Pictures at the Pantheon. We learned in my Art History class that the dome on top is perfectly round and the hole in the top represents the eye of God. The writing on the front on the Pantheon says the architects name and it basically says that he is really cool for designing the Pantheon and everyone should know he did it.
18: We stared at these guys for a good 10 minuets trying to figure out how they were creating this optical illusion. I think the top guy is sitting on a platform connected to the stick and I think the bottom guys hand is fake? I almost have them money just because they stumped me.
19-20: Pictures on the way to the Vatican and in front of St. Peters. I bought a small bottle and brought back some holy water from St. Peters.
21-25: Pictures around the Colosseum. The ruins are still from Ancient Rome and you can go all the way down and walk through them. The Colosseum is also a great place to people watch. I didn't go inside because I've already seen it but I was still entertained while waiting for my friends. I saw gypsies running from the cops, some crazy tour groups, and lots of people taking interesting pictures.
**I have more pictures from Rome on my camera so I will post them on here or on Facoebook once they are on my computer!
26: This is Patrick when he finally made it to Florence after I rescued him from McDonalds at the train station.
27: Our room in Viareggio. It was a bed and breakfast and we stayed with a lady named Francesca.
28-31: We ate at a really good restaurant that used to be a church. The pizza was one of the best ones I've had so far and It had wertzel on it, which is like their form of sausage. Patrick thinks it tastes like hot dogs.
32-38: Some pictures of the town. It's really small but I bet it gets crowded during the summer months. It rained in the morning at first but then it stopped after awhile so we got to see a lot of it.
39-40: Patrick loved gelato..he got the second biggest cup the first night here and we normally get the smallest so he went all out.
41-44: Danielle's 21st birthday! It's not a big deal in Italy but we had our own American style party for her. Her mom and brother came the day before so they celebrated with us too.
45-49: This is a museum that we accidentally went into. I don't know the name of it or how we even ended up in there but it was cool! I liked the red shoes everywhere.
50: This piano is on display right by the Academia Museum where David is displayed. I believe it's part of an exhibit
going on right now called Dali.
51-53: I was able to sneak a picture of David! Right before I got yelled at..There was also a musical instrument museum which I thought was really interesting. The piano has come a long way.
54-57: Frolicking around Florence..eating more gelato of course.
My Parents came the week after Patrick did so a blog post will be up about that soon! We are off to Barcelona this weekend!
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