Hello, good to see you again! It is now my third week in Italy, and it has been a great time! As the days go by, I am definitely feeling more settled into the city and feeling more comfortable with everything. We have not been as busy exploring the city as we have seen most of the major attractions at this point, so there has been some time to rest after a very busy start here in Florence. Classes have been fairly easy, and although it is a bit more tiring to have each class be two and a half hours compared to the normal hour and 15 minutes at UH, it is made up for with it being only once a week and having very little homework. Unfortunately, I have not been good about keeping up my studying of Italian as nearly everyone speaks English and so we have been able to get by without any problems. Hopefully in the future I will get back to studying it more.
Throughout these past two weeks we have continued to explore art, historic sites, and the many museums within the city. These have included the Piazzale Michelangelo, the Accademia Gallery, and the Boboli Gardens. There is so much art that it can be too much at times but it is a great way to fill up extra time when we don't have anything planned. For my sanity, I only took a few pictures of the art, but there was lots of great statues and architecture, and just cool historic sites in general.
The real exciting things that happened this week was taking our first trip outside of Florence! On the first weekend we went on two day trips on our own to Rome and then to Pisa. It was really easy to travel around using the bus and train, and was very cheap as well! Going to Rome we took a 3.5 hour bus for 6€ each way, and going to Pisa we took a train for 9€ each way, meaning both were less than $20 total!
Rome was jam-packed as we tried to fit as much as we could in a day. We visited the Vatican city, Saint Peter's Basilica, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and Trevi fountain all within the day. We got around fairly easily using the public transportation and got a day bus pass for only 7€ that got us everywhere we needed to. Out of it all, my favorites were the Colosseum because it was a cool structure, but also surrounded by a nice green and grassy area, as well as the Saint Peter's Basilica because it was by far the most enormous building I have ever been inside and there was endless small details to look at throughout the whole building.
Pisa was also a nice trip. Almost the opposite of Rome, the only thing to do there was to see the leaning tower of Pisa, so we had a lot of time to relax and leisurely walk around and enjoy the city.
Finally, this weekend we took a trip around the area of Modena to take a tour through a Parmesan cheese factory and the Ferrari Museum. This was a school organized tour that cost $140, but we didn't have to do any setup work, we just showed up and went along for the ride. This was a fun experience to be able to see everything, and it was nice that they also allowed for time to explore the areas on our own. I used my free time in Modena to buy some fancy balsamic vinegar as I heard that it is one of the best places for it.
And finally, it is time for the most important part: the food! I have been forgetting to take pictures of my food and sometimes I don't remember until after I have eaten some of it already, so I am sure I am missing lots of great dishes, but here is what the food has been looking like. I have also been cooking for me and my roommate Chris a lot as well as I am trying to save money and only eat out once per day.
Well, that's it for now. See you in the next one!
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