Benvenuto to Italy!


      I apologize for the lack of posting recently. After travelling on the weekends and preparing for finals, it's been a little busy here! But here are some of my adventures in Italy:

This past weekend, a group of six of us whisked off to Pisa, Italy on a Ryanair flight (and $80 flight may I just add, roundtrip. A student's saving grace.) We landed late Thursday night and stepped off the plane to the warm, Italian night air. It was a refreshing change from the chilly spring of Gothenburg. In fact, a Swede once told me spring or fall doesn't exist in Sweden. Just a long winter and a short summer.

The next morning, we went to catch an early morning bus to Florence. We mixed up the times, so of course we had to occupy our time feeding the cats pastries waiting for the bus to arrive.



Driving through the Tuscan countryside to Florence was almost a relief to us. The color green still existed! Plants grew lush and the sun shone bright overhead. We hadn't seen that sight in a long time.

I've been fortunate enough to have visited Florence once before, and I immediately recognized many of the sights. Even walking through cobblestone streets gave me a sense of deja vu.





Florence is a beautiful place. It seems to have embodied the idea of a city without losing the quintessential Italian charm the world adores so much. It's lively and calm all at once. No one seems to be in a rush. Their pace is slow, except for when they speak. They love to yell and talk. Not angrily, but passionately.

Our first stop was the Duomo, one of the most famous sights in Florence. I remembered visiting it during my high school trip two years ago and being equally awed.


Then we climbed 414 steps up Giotto's tower, the tower in the center right. The view was this:


It may have been the desperate need for rest from the climb or because of the fabulous view, but we spent over a half hour looking out over Florence from the top of Giotto's tower.

After a quick gelato break, we meandered through the streets to the Ponte Vecchio. The Ponte Vecchio is famous for it's expensive jewelry shops. Our group spent less time looking at the jewelry than we did looking over the canal.





Day 2: Pisa

   On our second day, we explored Pisa, where we flew into and where our hotel was. In the morning, we were greeted with a downpour as we walked to the Leaning Tower.



After we sought shelter in a restaurant for lunch (where I had my first creme brulee!), the weather cleared up. We spent the entire day in and around the Leaning Tower of Pisa. As we climbed the spiral staircase up the Tower, it was a little disorienting because of the tilt. The Tower was built as a bell tower in 1173 and took 200 years to build. It started to lean while it was being constructed. In recent years, however, they'd stabilized it with cement below the ground which is how we were able to go up it. The view, like the view of Florence, was incredible.







Since there was not much else to explore in Pisa, we sunbathed next to the Tower with, of course, gelato.



We also entered the cathedral next to the Tower and the 3 museums in the surrounding area. They offered us some history and insight into what the world was like back then.




We topped off the day with a fantastic dinner of real Italian pizza. The next day, though I was happy to return to Sweden, I knew I would miss the warmth and the happiness of Italy.

This weekend, I am unbelievably excited to go to Stockholm, which I've heard such good things about. Be sure to expect a post on that sometime next week!