Friday was only 2 days ago, are you kidding me?? It feels one day here is an entire week long and like yesterday was two weeks ago. I don't know if that even makes any sense, but in my mind it's what I feel!
Let's skip to the good stuff: my first trip out of Florence and into Lucca and Pisa! The trip was beyond amazing and I feel so privileged I had even the opportunity to go. Everyday I still think to myself, "Is this just some amazing dream? Am I actually living in an apartment, in Florence, eating gelato and pizza and panini's and pasta everyday"? I'm going to get bruises from pinching myself so often. At 8am we boarded the nicest airbus I've ever been on for the hour long trip to Lucca. I am so glad we got to take this bus because it was my first time ever leaving my little oasis of Florence and there was much more to see once we emerged from the city center. First of all, the outer layers of Florence are definitely not as glamorous as the middle. There are rundown houses, jenky apartments, graffiti-ridden buildings, and images that look much too similar to many places in the U.S. I'm not going to lie, seeing this side of Florence slightly dimmed the extremely bright light that is Florence in my mind. Once we passed through this muck, we reached the freeway and the rolling hills of Tuscany! I couldn't take my eyes off of the surrounding scenery and I was constantly amazed to see castles in the distance, old ruins a few feet away, or beautiful vineyards zooming past. I had to quickly alter my very jaded view of Italy and greatly expand it to include so much more wonderful scenery.
Our whole program piled off our bus and onto the streets right outside the massive walls of Lucca. Lucca is the most amazing city. It is a place I have only dreamed of before and a place I will travel back to time and time again. A unique thing about Lucca is that it's original city walls that are a few hundred feet tall are completely intact, giving it a very regal and important feeling. Another nice thing about Lucca is that there are few cars within the city walls so, unlike Florence, you can walk peacefully in the middle of the street without worrying about a miniature car or speeding motorcycle appearing out of nowhere and almost running you over. We never once had to yell, "Motto, motto!" to one another. The streets of Lucca were much wider and you were constantly coming upon the most adorable courtyards that just screamed "ITALY!", with the colorful buildings, flowers hanging from the windows, bikes leaning against the walls, clothes lines connecting windows, and a great big fountain in the middle to tie it all together. We visited many churches in Lucca and they blew my mind! Being in Italy has made me realize just how important and influential religion once was. It's incredible to think how much times have changed. My favorite thing about Lucca was that it was small enough to walk around the entire perimeter in maybe two hours. The walls of lucca are very thick so you are able to walk on top of the walls where you find huge grassy areas with playgrounds and restaurants and tree-lined paths and spectacular views of both the inside Lucca and outside Lucca.
Side note: People in Italy are OBSESSED with their dogs! They are everywhere. But at least in Lucca they have grass to do their business on. In Florence, they just go wherever they please and more often than not, it ends up on the bottom of your shoe.
The four hours we were allotted in Lucca went much too quickly, and after searching around town for literally an hour for gelato (they were all closed until Feb/March!), we ate a quick lunch and hopped back on the bus.
The next hour to Pisa was spent gazing out at the amazing views, once again, and fighting the sleep that would cause my eyes to close and thus not see every second of the ride. Our bus let us off at the most random location, a huge empty parking lot surrounded by a neighborhood that looked...scary to say the least. We were literally ambushed by men trying to sell us Pisa souvenirs but were previously advised to not make eye contact and keep walking. After a very odd 10 minute walk across train tracks and through small neighborhoods, we made it to the entrance of the Pisa city walls. And of course, the first thing we saw, was....drum roll please...the leaning tower of Pisa!! Despite how touristy this trip was, it was quite amazing to see this huge monument that I have heard about and seen pictures of my entire life. Here I was, standing right before the ACTUAL tower!! We had 30 minutes to take the classic "holding up the tower" picture and it was the most hilarious thing to see people lined up and down the walkway holding their hand out, or kicking their foot into the air, or leaning back, you name it! Someone needs to film it and put it on a funny show, because it's classic. Not to say I wasn't right there with them :)
We finished up with our pictures (I was dubbed picture taker of every person on our trip, I just have a talent with angles I guess) and then had a one and a half hour tour of Pisa. This tour required staying in a small area, but we got to go into the Baptistry and hear a lady sing beautifully and we entered the huge cathedral and leaned all the history. Pisa is one cool place, that's for sure! It had so much more to offer, rather than just the leaning tower, and our guides made sure to leave us with that impression. We had amazing gelato on the way out and soon our day in Pisa had come to an end. We boarded our buses and I finally slept a little. Walking zombies exited the buses at around 8pm and everyone crawled back to their apartments and into bed. It had been a very long day of a lot of walking, a lot of information, a lot of memories, and a lot of excitement. It was a wonderful trip that I would make again and again!
The weekend following this trip was spent in our little town of Florence, exploring, visiting museums, eating food (I had MEXICAN food in ITALY, no mom it wasn't half as good as yours, but the margaritas were yummy:) ), and having a good time with friends.
Time to sleep, class in the morning! School is starting to get slightly harder, by the way. It really doesn't fit into my current "vacation".
Ciao!
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