The Month of Visitors...

Ciao everyone!

I am so sorry it has been so long since my last post - we have been very busy around here! I haven't had time to sit down and recap everything yet between all of our visitor and our school work (which randomly decided to become a thing the past 2 weeks...), but I have been dying to update you all on what we have been up to!  Since we got back from Spring Break, we have had non stop visitors from the Gitkins, to the Korns, to our friends Amy and Sam! We've been all over Italy and have seen so many incredible things. Since I have very limited time and WAY too many pictures, I am going to have to give you the very brief version with just the highlights...

Our very special first visitors were the GITKINS, of course!!! They arrived just in time to stay up all night with us and watch the Michigan basketball team play in the final four championship at 3:30 AM at a bar in Florence! Even though we ended up losing...we still had fun!

Maize lollipops!

After a fun sight-seeing filled week in Florence, the Gitkins made their way over to Venice for the weekend..and they were nice enough to take me with them! Venice was absolutely gorgeous.  We could not believe that there were no cars at all - just boats! We got to visit the murano glass factory to see how the glass was made, explore Piazza San Marco, and take a gondola ride!  We also visited the Jewish quarter and had a tour of the 5 synagogues that are there - each one was a completely different style and design, and they were all absolutely gorgeous. And we obviously couldn't leave the Jewish ghetto without having dinner at Gam Gam's - the famous Jewish/Italian restaurant with delicious matzah ball soup and falafel!

We were very sad to say bye to the Gitkins, but thankfully (although maybe not for our stomachs since we were already too full to move...), we only had to wait one day for the Korns' arrival!  My parents and my sisters (Emily and Ali - we were very sad that Jamie couldn't come back again since she had her finals, but she was there in spirit!) arrived in Florence on Saturday morning.  It was so much fun to have them here and finally be able to show them around the city and take them to all of my favorite spots that they have been hearing so much about!  As you can imagine, during our week in Florence we ate pretty well.

We had a lot of pasta....

A lot of sandwiches...

A lot of wine.....

A lot of gelato...

And of course hit up the secret bakery!

Of course, we also had to mix in some sight seeing! We saw the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens, climbed the duomo, checked out the ponte vecchio, explored the leather market and the food market, saw the David, and walked around all of Florence!

Oh, and don't forget some shopping - of course! How did Daddy even live before he owned that scarf?!

On Tuesday, we even had time to take a day trip to Venice (lucky for me, I got to go twice!).  We had such a beautiful day walking around the city, enjoying the beautiful views on the water, and of course taking a gondola ride!

On Thursday, it was time for us to head to Rome! I was so excited since I have not had the chance to go yet, and there was so much to see.  The city was absolutely beautiful, and I could not get over how different it was from Florence.  It is so much bigger, and it has a much more "city" feel to it.  The food was even drastically different! We had a tour guide take us around to many of the main sites, so we got to see explore the Vatican City and see the Sistene Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica which were both absolutely gorgeous.

We of course had to make a few wishes in the Trevi Fountain....

We also got to see the Colloseum (aka the big house), which was insanely big and incredible to see.

We also spent one day taking a four hour food tour around the Testaccio area (a very "foodie" and brooklyn-esque area of Rome).  This was one of my favorite things I have done all semester! First of all, our tour guide happened to randomly be from Ann Arbor Michigan! Clearly, it was fate.  We got to spend the day walking around the area sampling food from all of the most famous bakeries and restaurants.  We even got a tour of the food market and got to make bruschetta with fresh tomatoes! Everything was absolutely delicious.  Especially the mini Tiramisu cups we had for breakfast...Emily hated those, can't you tell?

We also got to see the Spanish steps and the Campo di fiore area, and we spent a lot of time walking around the Travestere area at night since there were so many cute restaurants and bars! I had the most incredible time with my family visiting, and it was really so special to have them here and finally get to show them everything.  And even though I was very sad for them to leave, I got to spend the entire day with my friend Corey who is studying abroad in Rome! Corey and I had a very luxurious morning at the hotel for breakfast since we still had the room for the day (hotel beds and showers are just a teensy bit better than the ones at my apartment....), and then she took me all around her neighborhood for the afternoon!

Once again, I didn't have much time to recover before our next set of visitors, because our friends Amy and Sam (who were studying abroad in London but had just finished their program) met me at the train station in Rome to come with me back to our apartment in Florence! On Sunday morning (at the very civilized hour of 6 a.m.) hopped on a bus to Cinque Terre, a portion of the Ligurian coast in the Italian Riviera.  It is 5 different small towns all connected on the coast by train, and it is absolutely gorgeous.  We spent the whole day hopping from town to town, exploring the towns, the caves, the rocks, and the beaches.  All of the views were magnificent, and each town was cuter than the next.  Cinque Terre is also where they invented Pesto and Foccaccia bread, so we had a delicious lunch!

We then got to spend the rest of the week taking Amy and Sam and our friend Pam (who was also abroad in London) around Florence! It was a lot of fun to show them our city and take them to all of our favorite spots.  We ended the week watching the sunset together on top of Piazzale Michelangelo.

Even though all of these visitors was a little bit exhausting at times, it was well worth it to get to share the experience with our families and best friends!!! And just when you think we might get some down time - it was time to leave for Munich on Thursday for springfest! Blog post for that coming soon, I promise!

Italian word of the day: Visitatori - Visitors!

Arrivederci,

Jordan