So, I have been putting off blogging Italy because it feels so overwhelming... we were there for what felt like an eternity, though it was only about nine days.  Also, I loved Italy more than any other place I've ever been, and miss it so much that I've been too upset to write about it until now.  I guess I should just be thankful I got to have those experiences in the first place, right?  Right.  Be warned: this is a reaaaalllllllyyyy long post.  I promise I won't be offended if you don't read it all!  There was just so much to talk about, and I didn't want to leave anything out.

          We flew down to Italy as a group, but we only spent one day doing planned group activities, and the rest of the time was ours.  It was supposed to be our "mid-term" break (It's hard to believe, but at that point classes were halfway over!), and oh my goodness, it could not have come at a better time.  We were all pretty stressed out from the burden of endless tests and group project... our schedule when we are actually in Maastricht is very packed!  Italy was the absolute perfect place to relax and unwind- I traveled with such an awesome, laid back group, and for an entire week, our days were solely built around eating, (we scrapped the whole three-meals-per-day idea, and suddenly had days consisting of breakfast, breakfast part two, lunch, pre-dinner, and dinner, with multiple coffee and gelato breaks thrown in :) ), shopping, watching sunsets, spending time outside, and bonding as much as possible, with a little sightseeing thrown in when it didn't require too much planning or effort.  It.  Was. PERFECT.

           We arrived in Venice Sunday afternoon and took a bus to Padua, about thirty minutes away.  Except for a discussion of one of our required texts (Complications- such an amazing book, by the way!!), the rest of the day was ours to explore Padua.  It's an extremely charming town, full of shops, cafes, beautiful old architecture, winged lion sculptures, and little squares with clock towers where people gather to just sit back and enjoy food and life and each other.  We had our first Italian meal and spent a lovely, WARM (finally!  It had been so cold in Berlin and Maastricht!) evening in one of the squares with amazing gelato and just about every single person on the trip, which was fun.  The next day we toured the University of Padua which is ancient, and was home to many very important figures in the history of medicine, such as Vesalius (one of the first to perform dissections on humans- in a huge theater!) and Fallopio (a famous anatomist- bet you can guess what he discovered and named!), and even Galileo!  We saw the theater where Vesalius performed his dissections in front of hundreds of medical students, and the stand where Galileo taught, which was surreal.  After the tour, our professors said "Well... see you at the Milan airport in a week!", and just like that we were free to travel!  We had one more night in Padua that Baylor had booked though, so we just hung around there for the rest of the day and it was so nice- we shopped, went to the botanical gardens, dressed up and had a fancy dinner, then hung out in our favorite square with gelato and coffee all night.

          The next day, we got an early start to get back to Venice.  Our hotel was on the mainland in a quaint neighborhood called Mestre, so we walked around there a bit before heading to the island part of Venice.  It was crowded but so gorgeous!  It seems very eerily quiet, and it took us a while to realize that's because there are no cars and therefore no background street noise.  We didn't go on a gondola ride, but we had fun trying to navigate through the narrow, winding streets, and we stopped in lots of mask and glass shops along the way.  We sat in St. Mark's square for a while and admired the splendor of the cathedral-  definitely one of my favorites so far.  After relaxing by the water, enjoying what might have been the best gelato of the whole trip, and making a couple more shopping stops, we headed back to Mestre for the night.

          Wednesday, we had to go back to the island to take a train to Florence, which seems counter-intuitive to me, since Venice-Mestre is actually between Florence and the island part of Venice.  However, it worked out nicely because the next available train wasn't for a few hours, so we got to explore the canals and shops a little more.  I was on a mission to get Christmas ornaments for Mom and Dad, so we went back to the very crowded strip of shops near St. Mark's square.  The shops are so tightly packed in, and it was so crowded, that in trying to get around a guy with a huge backpack, one of us knocked a wine bottle stopper off a shelf and the shop owner freaked out and demanded that I pay.  The funny part was, she was so upset but then said "I give you half price.  If you find the pieces, you keep, but if it's broken, there is nothing I can do".  I thought this was a fair deal, so I paid, she gave me a little box and the metal half of the stopper, and I proceeded to get down on the street to look for the glass that had broken off, and... it was in one whole piece!  It just needs to be glued back to the metal, which is exactly how it had been attached in the first place!  The best part was, the original price was only 5 euro, so I got a perfectly fine wine bottle stopper for 2.50- quite a deal!  As my friend Sara said, things were just jumping off the shelves for me that day.

          After the prettiest train ride ever through rolling, green hills, we made it to Florence in the afternoon and were pleasantly surprised to find that our hostel was kind of like a loft apartment- so cute!  We wandered around the town and picked up some bread, salami, brie, and fruit, then headed up to the Piazza di Michelangelo which is at the top of a hill and is kind of intense hike to get to, and we had the most perfect picnic up there as the sun set over Florence.  The sunset was so red and intense and I loved how the light reflected off the pinkish roofs of the town, and we just sat up there for a few hours talking about life...It was just completely perfect.  I'm probably going to say that a lot about Italy, sorry. I don't think I'm exaggerating or being unoriginal, I think we really were just incredibly lucky to have a string of perfect moments!

Ponte Vecchio- a bridge with a bunch of jewelry shops on it

          We had designated Thursday as shopping and sightseeing in Florence day, so we began by touring the Duomo, a huge cathedral, and climbing up something like 426 steps to the dome- the view was so worth it!  The Duomo has a beautifully detailed painting in the dome; it's so amazing to wonder how the artists ever got up there to paint it all, and it must have taken forever.  Incredible.

          After coming back down, we split up and bravely ventured into the street market area, where bargaining is the norm and vendors yell at you and aggressively shove their merchandise into your face.  The friend I was with is black, and oh my gosh, they LOVED her- they kept yelling "Brown sugar!  Special deal for you honey!", hahaha.  She even got two free pairs of earrings!  Well, despite my pale skin color I got some great deals too- I got jewelry and a purse, and tons of presents for y'all!  After a hectic afternoon of shopping and walking around, we decided we were in need of another sunset picnic, but this time we got pizzas to bring up to the hill, and needless to say, it was another perfect night.

          Friday, about half of our group day-tripped to Rome!  I know, I know... "Who takes a day-trip to ROME?!".  We do, I guess.  It ended up being perfect for me- I wasn't a huge fan of Rome.  I can't even put my finger on why, all I know is that I'm glad we hadn't planned on staying there for a few nights like some Baylor people did.  For the little amount of time we were there, we saw tons of monuments though- this was the one day where we had to have an organized "attack plan".  We started at the Vatican, where we saw the cathedral and the Sistine chapel.  The cathedral was, like most here, gorgeous and huge and amazing to think about the fact that people probably dedicated huge portions of their lives building or painting it, just as a humble, earthly offering to God.  I don't know why, but this always amazes me.  I want to love Him that way- a whole magnificent, perfectly detailed cathedral's worth of love.

          The Sistine chapel was... a little underwhelming.  Maybe that's because it was so crowded though- we could barely walk through it.  We stopped by the Spanish steps and Trevi fountain, where of course I threw a coin in and made a wish.  We saw the Pantheon, then walked toward the Coliseum and came across something that ended up being one of my favorite things about Rome, though I'm not entirely sure what it was... I think it might have been some sort of war memorial though.  We saw the ruins and the Coliseum, and it was another one of those surreal moments.  After a nice dinner at a quiet pub, and of course some gelato, we trained back to Florence and arrived exhausted but satisfied with the day's adventures.

In the Vatican museum

           On Saturday, we started making our way to Cinque Terre, which is actually five cities along the Western coast of Italy.  On the way, we stopped in Pisa to see a certain tower... it is indeed very lean-y!  Upon arrival in Cinque Terre later that afternoon, I fell in love with it immediately and knew already that it was going to be hard to leave.  With dramatic, rocky cliffs, bright aqua water, green hills chock full of grapevines, and cheerfully colorful buildings studding the hills, how could anyone NOT love it?!  We checked into our hostel (again like a little apartment... we have been incredibly fortunate in finding great, cheap places to stay!)  and then ate "pre-dinner".  After that, we explored for quite a while, and then decided to continue our tradition of sunset picnics complete with bread, brie, and the best peaches I have ever had.  This was by far the best sunset- it's just hard to beat sunsets over the ocean!  Also, a storm was blowing in, so there was all this dramatic lightning against the darkening red sky... it was so powerfully beautiful that we just sat and took it all in in silence for a long time.

          We were staying in Rio Maggiore, the last of the five villages, so Sunday morning we trained about ten minutes to the last village, planning to hike through the villages all day.  We hung out at the beach there for a while.  It was rocky, but still gorgeous, and the rocks were all sorts of crazy colors.  We sat there for a while before commencing the hike.  It was so intense!  Huge segments of it are uphill on these narrow steps, and it had been raining so parts of the path were a little washed out.  Nevertheless, it was breathtaking (well, literally and figuratively...)- it was so green and smelled wonderfully earthy, and we got the best views of the ocean and hills and all the villages!  It took us two hours to get to the next village, and after lunch there, all but three of us gave up hiking for the day, haha.  I wanted to keep going though, because I was enjoying it so much.  I'm so glad I continued on the hike, because it ended up being my absolute favorite thing on the trip... it was just so pretty and tranquil.  Between camp this summer, and my experiences here so far, I'm realizing how much of a nature girl I am- I like the big cities, but I'm definitely happiest outside, surrounded by the trees and water and peaceful silence, with a little sweat on my forehead :)  We got back to Rio Maggiore just in time to see one last perfect sunset, and then we all went out for a dinner at an adorable restaurant in a gazebo with brightly colored glasses and the best lasagna I have ever had, except for possibly Mom's.  I'm not just saying this for brownie points Mom, but I had lasagna a lot in Italy and that was the only one that I liked as much as yours.  Really.


          After that, we just hung out back in our apartment and reminisced about the trip and whined about going back to Maastricht.  We weren't ready for the reality of mid-terms, projects, chilly wet weather, and three meals per day!  We had to leave way too early the next morning to train back to Milan and fly back to Brussels, then train to Maastricht... and we arrived in Maastricht around 9 PM!  Coming back was heartbreaking, but things are going well.  A lot of people stayed here this weekend just to have time to get schoolwork done, and it's been relaxing.  We are eagerly planning our next trip together, and that's what will get me through this next week of tests and projects!  The people I have been traveling with are so wonderful and completely make the experience, and I feel like I have them to thank for having the best week ever.  Italy itself is amazing, but it sure helps to travel with people who are able to be so laid-back and have a fun attitude, even when circumstances aren't perfect... but see, I hardly talked about the not so great moments from Italy, because I hardly remember them- that's how great everyone's attitude was!  We created our own perfect moments that week, and I will cherish those memories forever.

If you read all of that... you're awesome.

          Oh, and for some reason, I wasn't able to load some pictures that I really wanted to share... plus, I feel like I never put enough pictures on here anyway, because if I put too many it would overload the blog too much.  So, if you want to look at more pictures, they are on facebook!  Even if you don't have a facebook you should be able to look at them by copying & pasting this link:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=284700&id=658067914

lotts of love,
Allison