Welcome to Florence!

We made it to Florence! I have only been here for a few days but I am really enjoying the city and I’m excited to explore it more. I’ll update my blog more when I know the city a little better and have some pictures. One thing you may recognize by name is the Ponte Vecchio bridge. It is about a block or two away from our apartment so we are obviously really close to the river, which I love.

Today I started my nutrition class and I absolutely love it! Today my teacher took us to the local market and explained a lot about the food and shopping there. In Italy they use a lot less preservatives so food is much I fresher here. Because of this they buy their food almost every morning from markets like this and they only buy the things they will need for the meals that day. This is very different from the states but I’m excited to give it a try. The market is very close to my class so I plan to walk by there on my way back to my apartment and get some food for the day. 

 

Sorry I have been so behind with my blog, we just got to our apartment so we finally have reliable internet. Here is a little post from Rome and I will post more soon and then start trying to post daily about Florence and the places we travel on the weekend.

7/11/2011

  On Monday we got up early and left Venice for Rome. We rode the train, which was a nice way to see the country, but I have to admit that I slept most of the way. Apparently putting me in a train is like putting a baby in a car because for the life of me I haven’t been able to stay awake both times.

I’m really excited about the way we decided to tour around this time, maybe we’re getting smarter or maybe just lucky. We are riding a double-decker bus around Rome! It takes us to the Vatican, Pantheon, Coliseum, Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and a few other, less famous but still beautiful, squares. Today we only had a few hours to ride it but we went to the Coliseum and ancient Rome and the Trevi Fountain, which I loved! The great thing about this is getting to see everything from the top of the bus. The bus takes the same route every 20 minutes so even though we didn’t stop at the Vatican, for example, we could still see it.

We didn’t stay out very late because we didn’t want to be out after dark. Although this city is beautiful, it is also very large and the people here seem very unfriendly. I’m not sure if it is because we are American or that’s just how it is. We are enjoyed seeing everything that Rome has to offer but I am also glad that we didn’t spending our entire trip here either. 

I'll try to post more really soon! I'll post more pictures when I have lots of time because they take forever to download here. 

XOXO Cassi