Discovery

Ciao a tutti!

I can't believe that I've already been in Florence for a little over 3 weeks now. The time is flying. Everyday passes by so fast. I feel like I'm in constant movement from when I wake up in the morning until about 10 at night, but I love it. Everyday is a new adventure and I always find something new that I've never seen before.

Last weekend I went to Pisa with my fiance and my friend Allison that I met through the study abroad program. I looked at the weather before we left and it said it was supposed to be sunny and about 55 degrees and when we arrived there it was freezing and raining. Even though it was pretty terrible outside, I still really enjoyed myself. When we first got to Pisa, we went into a place that seemed like it was gonna have great food and we sat down and they took out our penne and sauce from the freezer and put it in the microwave. That was pretty disappointing and I couldn't even believe that any place did that in Italy. But, once we got to see the leaning tower of Pisa, it was a totally different story. It was so overwhelming to see the tower, cathedral, baptistery, and cemetary that are all right next to eachother. They were all so beautiful.

This weekend, I'm going to the carnevale in Viareggio. Next to Venice's carnevale, the carnevale that takes place in Viareggio, Tuscany is the second most popular carnevale to go to in Italy. I am so excited to see all of the paper mache floats (some of them take about a year to make). It's so awesome to be able to go somewhere different every weekend and experience new things.

When I first got here, the thing I may have been most excited about was trying the gelato. I was a little naive in thinking that all gelato in Florence was going to be great. There are so many touristy places that use artificial coloring and ingredients to make the mountains of gelato look pretty. Well, now that I've been here for a little while, I'm finding all of the best places to get gelato and I have to say that when you find really good gelato, it's pretty exciting. I found two places, one called Grom, and the other called Gelateria della Passera. They are AMAZING! I've never eaten anything so delicious in my life! Banana and chocolate gelato together is definitely my favorite so far.

Now that I've been talking about how great the gelato is , I think I may go and get some now (this will be my second time today, I hope I won't be rolling myself back to the U.S. at the end of this trip!). I hope you all enjoy the pictures of Pisa and the gelato!

Ciao!

Kelsey