Navigating a Not-So-Secret Garden.

These are the Boboli Gardens.

Our Museum passes for school get us into this garden for free, 

so one day we decided to check it out.

I'm sure we only saw about 2/3rds of the entire garden 

because it was so huge.

We saw a fish fight.

We hugged an egg shaped sculpture.

We trespassed a forbidden balcony.

Well. I did.

And we will be back to do it all again.

Hopefully the garden will have flowers in the next coming weeks.

Even without flowers, I was still absolutely in awe of the beauty of this place.

It was like The Secret Garden mixed with Narnia.

Embracing a Barrier.

I am doing a program called Family Club at my school here in Italy.
I applied, interviewed, was accepted, and am now paired with an Italian family to hang out with this semester!
I feel so blessed to have this opportunity.
My family consists of Rosanna (mom) and Silvia (15 year old daughter).
They are very funny, layed back, and so welcoming.
They are a perfect match for me.
We had dinner tonight together. I made them tortellini soup and they loved it!
We laughed so much tonight. They are both hilarious, and also so patient with me and attempts to speak Italian to them. 
They are so good at laughing with me ;)
I am so excited to improve my italian by talking with them.
They are so encouraging, which is just what I need haha.
I brought them bueno bars, and they sent me home with half a pie.
It's going to be a great semester.
:)

A Majestic View.

St. Francis of Assisi.

He left a privileged life to go live with the poor.

In a time of war, he preached of peace.

In a time when wealth was the most important, he preached to acknowledge and help the poor.

He preached the gospel.

This place was magical.

I will definitely be going back.

Building up Treasures on Earth.

Dillon getting his vibe on.

I have found some crazies for friends here in Florence.

They're my breed.

I appreciate them.

haha.

Matthew 6:19

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

San Gimignano is filled with towers. 

The people of this town built up towers because of a 

rivalry in the town.

The higher your tower, 

the more wealth you displayed.

It reminds me of Bon Iver's music video for his song Towers.

The way I interpret it, the man has built up all of these towers his entire life.

These are his treasures here on earth.

But when he dies, the towers fall.

We should not be investing our lives in things; 

in material items that will not matter when we are gone.

We should be investing out lives into people.

And into a relationship with our creator.

Who we will be with forever when we die.

Who will love us unconditionally.

Who will surprise us with joy, and give us life purpose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t60roHM1t7o

Staying on Two Feet.

[Sienna Cathedral]

Sienna was beautiful. 

I am going to be describing every place we go using that same word.

So get used to it.

We got to experience a unique side of Sienna.
It snowed.
I have never seen snowflakes as large as these.
Baseball sized. 
The locals were outside taking pictures even. 
Even though it was cold, I am so thankful we were able to see such a winter wonderland in Sienna.

I had a pear, blue cheese, and balsalmic risotto for lunch today.

I'm forcing my mom to get it when they come.

It was the best meal I have had since I've been in Italy.

Entertaining.

Tonight I went to see Glen Hansard with Kate and Blakely.
I stumbled upon it a week ago and decided that for 20 euro it would probably be worth my while.
The Viper Theatre was our venue.

As you step through the stainless steel door 
of this Meatpacking hotspot,
you'll be greeted by none other than Pierre, 
the Muslim Elvis impersonator.
this club has everything: clones, freaks, sneezing, 
a Russian man on a prepaid cell phone, 
and anyone can get in. There's no password.
At the door, just do the Cosby face.

Just kidding :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDcyvzJXWEk

But on a serious note. It was kind of like walking into a concrete cave.
Despite that I was still excited when we walked in because I knew that small meant that it was going to be a more intimate concert.
Those are always the best.

Lisa Hannigan opened for Glen. Her voice is somewhat similar to Ellie Gouldings.
Very unique.
I LOVED her.
So much that I bought her album as soon as we got home.

Glen was incredible.
I would say his concert was as good as Bon Iver's.
Which is saying A LOT.
There were 3 violins, a cello, trombone, trumpet, saxapohne, 2 base guitars, a keyboard, drumset, and Glen on the acoustic guitar.
Full band.
Full sound.
The Viper Theatre was transformed.

Glen talked a lot between songs.
Telling funny stories, and explaining the deep meanings of songs.
He was charismatic.
Even if you hated his genre of music,
you would have a hard time not fully enjoying yourself at this concert.
And that's why it was so good.

Here is video footage I took during the concert!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEvG7L9H1P0&feature=youtu.be

Public Transportation.

Public Transportation in Italy can take you many amazing places 

for 1 euro and 20 cents.

In 20 minutes we went from the city center of Florence to Fiesole.

One of the best views of Florence.

And a gorgeous sunset.

Tyler felt like a model today.

And I had a camera.

So this happened.

:)

Charades and Valentines.

Nothing better than finding a hole-in-the-wall restaurant for a Valentines dinner with some wonderful gals.

Blakely had heard of this place. You walk in and it looks like a normal cafe type place where you would order a panini, but if you walk to the back wall and point down the stairs (which are definitely not visible when you walk in unless you know they are there), the owner nods at you and you walk down into this darling little room.

We spent about 5 minutes looking at the menu trying to decipher the Italian to see what we should order.

We finally decide that we will just guess and hope for the best when the waiter comes to take our order.

He sits down, and takes a big breath.

Then he describes the ENTIRE menu with charades and pictionary.

He knew the absolute minimum amount of English.

He drew a picture of a small circle and said "green".

Pea. That dish had peas in it.

We could not stop laughing. Laughing with him of course.

He got as much of a kick out of watching us try to guess as we got out of watching him try to draw food.

We didn't want the menu to end,

but by the end of all his explanations we still had to guess what we were going to eat because we hadn't retained any of his hard work because we were laughing too hard. 

One moment of the night topped all other moments.

It was a moment of victory.

It was a moment that will go down in the books.

When our dear friend acted out an American movie he had seen the other day,

and put his hands up to his head like ears and said "mean brown hair. nice blonde hair." and Blakely shouted out "LEGALLY BLONDE!!"

Our friend jumped 5 feet in the air and had the biggest smile on his face.

When we realized why he was acting the movie out in the first place,

we entered a new fit of laughter.

He told us he loved America because of the big houses and windows.

Then he had us guess the movie.

His love of big houses and windows was based off of a sorority house.

What a character :)

Happy Valentines Day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To3E0ViqnTE

A Good Walk.

I got out of class today at 2:30; I was quite ready to take a nap.

But when you live in Florence there comes a certain guilt when you take a nap while the sun is still shining and adventures are still beckoning.

So I threw my C.S. Lewis book in my satchel, 

put my camera around my neck, 

and headed out the door.

I found beach access by the Arno.

I had to walk through mud and weeds to get there,

but boy was it worth it.

Perfect place to bask in the sun and read my book.

Check.

Not to mention I found this adorable tag on my old man flannel I bought at the Tuesday market for one euro.

Deflecting Rain From Our Parade.

Today was one of the best days of my entire life.

Accuweather told us Viareggio was going to be raining Sunday,

but we bought our train tickets anyways.

Blakely and I had a carnivale to attend.

We got to Viareggio around 9am, and the parade did not start until 3,

so we had quite a bit of time to kill.

We enjoyed the pier, walked on the beach, and had a lovely breakfast 

in a darling cafe.

We bought kebabs to munch on while we got ready for the festivities to begin.

Being there so early, we got to see the town transform.

People in costumes began trickling in and we started to feel quite underdressed.

The floats were getting set up, and we couldn't hold our excitement in.

Time for some confetti throwing pictures.

The floats were made out of paper mache. 

A local told us that some people go to college specifically to learn how to make/engineer these floats.

Can you imagine?

I pointed at the guy in this tank, beckoning him to hit me with his best shot.

He did. I got the shot :)

Sidenote: Throwing confetti at complete strangers was one of my favorite parts of this day. We learned that it was okay after we had it thrown at us a few times lol.

The parade was all about families. 

Families dressed up together (tiger families, sheep families, etc.)

and there were little kids throwing confetti, dancing, and laughing everywhere.

I absolutely loved that :)

I told Blakely I was going to to nuts if they played Gangnam style. 

Hence this photo.

The most incredible beach sunset.

Couldn't have chosen a better person to spend this day with :)