Vecchio, Pisa, Sunny Afternoon in Florence

Ciao!

The last few days have been action packed with activities. Today we finally had a sunny day in Florence! Its been pretty overcast since we got here, so it was a relief to finally see blue skies and sunshine, I got a whole new perspective on the true beauty of Florence.

Sunday, Jan 25th, our group travelled to Vicchio in the Tuscan countryside for a local soccer match. The bus ride was along a windy, steep road with beautiful views of the countryside. Upon arrival, I would say the stadium was about the size of the Essex High School football stadium, for all you Vermonters, and it was packed. Fans got pretty riled up with noisemakers and cheers for the local game. It was pretty cold, we were told it had snowed the night before. The mountains in the distance were capped with snow, not a site that I miss much! The game was a little slow paced, and ended in a 0-0 tie. After the match, we had free time to walk around the town. The town consisted of a small square with a few shops and not much else! Since it was late afternoon on a Sunday nothing was open except a small cafe. We were all very cold, so we decided to sit and get a warm drink. I ordered a ciocolata calda (hot chocolate). It ended up being more like warm pudding, but delicious. It was very viscous and had to be eaten with a spoon. The local Vicchio soccer team was cooking us dinner, so we wandered back to the field after warming up in the cafe. We sat in a heated tent right near the stadium. A few members of the team also came to eat with us. It appeared their booster club, or equivalent, cooked dinner for us. No easy task with 166 students! Everything was of course delicious. I think they were trying to make us feel at home with the music, they kept playing the YMCA... We took the bus home, and I was exhausted and turned in early.

Monday morning was back to class. After class, about half of our group took a bus to Pisa to see the sights there. The bus ride took about an hour and 45 minutes. The town itself isn't very big, we toured the Baptistry, Duomo, connecting burial grounds, and of course got plenty of pictures of the Leaning Tower. The Leaning Tower was built as a bell tower for the church. Today if all of its 12 bells rang at once, it would fall over immediately. We learned that the original creator of the Tower was fired then exiled because of the mishap. All of his successors also had no luck and the tower leans 5 m. All of the buildings have a small lean to them, but the Tower is the most prominent because it carries so much weight on such a small surface area. The other buildings cover more ground so the lean is less noticeable.

Today, Tuesday, we had class in the morning. It was spent mostly to review for our 'midterm' tomorrow. Hard to believe we've been in Florence for a week and a half already, time is flying by! After class, Jackie, Lizzie, Suzanne, Jess and I climbed to the top of the Piazzale Michelangelo and got the most beautiful views of Florence. I highly recommend doing this for any future travelers to Florence, it was breath-taking. I took many pictures, I'll post them as soon as I can!

Tomorrow after class, I will visit the Uffizi Gallery. Friday morning we leave for Venice, where we will be all weekend. Monday afternoon, I will be visiting Siena. Next Thursday we move to Rome! Only a few precious days left in Firenze.

That's it for now! I'm having a blast, I may never come home!!