Blessings in Italy!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post! Things have gotten a little crazy around here!

Since I last posted, I was on my way to Luzern, Switzerland on Friday April 6^th. It was so much fun to get to end our spring break trip with relaxation by the lake and just hanging out! It was so much fun and we stayed in a nice hotel (thanks to one of my friend’s dad’s points! Score!), and we even got an American breakfast included! We felt like such princesses, it was great!

When we finally got home, yes we all call Castiglion Fiorentino our home now, we were exhausted. We barely made it up the hill with all our bags and everything, but when we did finally make it, I completely collapsed on the bed and didn’t wake up until a few girls came to tell me about Midnight Easter mass. I woke up in a hurry, got ready, and went to Mass at 11pm. We sat there for 3 hours! It was a LONG time, and after my day of traveling, I barely made it through, but at midnight they ran a Jesus figurine into the church and fireworks went off outside! It was the craziest thing ever! I could not believe what was going on, but it was a really cool experience!

On Easter, we slept in late and then had a pizza picnic (doesn’t get more Italian than that!) and then spent the rest of the day doing laundry and unpacking, etc. On Monday, I decided to just spend the day relaxing after our long trip, and slept in until 2pm. I NEVER do that! It was so amazing! We have to get up at about 7 every morning and sometimes earlier to catch trains and stuff, so it was nice to get to sleep in for once! Probably won’t happen again until I get home!

On Tuesday, Caroline and I woke up and took the train to Castiglion del Lago, which is about 25 minutes away. We explored through the city until we found the Lake and then popped a squat on the edge of the lake and just sat for 4 hours. We read, listened to music, watched the people, and just relaxed the whole time! It was wonderful and the weather was so great! The funniest thing that we saw was a little European family, with two children who striped down bare bottomed and ran around the lake! They were having a blast and all the tourists were staring away! It was hilarious! The kids were jumping in the water and getting all muddy, just being kids. We could not stop laughing!

The next two days were very, very busy because we had to plan for our lessons and had no time off since the other half of our group was on their spring break. We had play practice and tutoring which was an absolute blast. Tutoring is so much fun because we get to have one on one conversations with the eight grade students and they ask us questions about our culture and we ask them questions too. It is so interesting and so much fun to share stories and talk about each other’s culture! It is so funny to see how much we have in common and yet, how much is different too.

Caroline and I were busy planning our upcoming weekend trip too, which we booked literally the day before. We left on Thursday and booked the hotel and everything on Wednesday. Such a different kind of traveling than what I am used too, but it all worked out great!

So this past weekend…Caroline and I traveled to Sorrento, Positano, Pompeii, and Rome! It was such a fun filled weekend and I love Caroline, so we had such a great time together! It was a first real “sleep away” weekend trip, so that was so much fun! But also quite exhausting trying to cram everything into three days.

Positano, Italy!

Thursday night we took a train from CF to Rome, Rome to Naples, and then Naples to Sorrento. We didn’t arrive until 10 pm and then had to trek to our hotel, so by the time we got there we set our bags down, explored around for a little bit, and then went to bed! We woke up on Friday morning and took the first bus to Positano which was about 45 minutes away, and the bus ride there was beautiful! We had our cameras out the whole time snapping pictures and loving every minute of it! We weren’t quite sure which stop to get off at, so Caroline just rang the bell and the bus driver pulled over and we got off! So many people thought we were smart and new what we were doing, so they got off too…little did we all know, we were actually like a 30 minute walk from the center of town. But it was still fun to explore and of course always stopping to ask for directions! Eventually we stopped in one shop and asked the little lady, “Um where is the center of town?” and she was like “Duh, you are in it!” We just laughed so hard and then decided to stay around and shop for a while. We shopped and then made our way to the beaches, which Positano is known for. They are also known for their lemon sorbet (which we had two of!) and they were AMAZING! For those Aggies out there, its kind of like a lemon chill, but WAYYYYYY better!!  It was pretty rainy, so we spent a lot of time inside the stores! I didn’t complain too much! We did go out on the beach though and Caroline completely soaked her shoes by a massive wave, so she had to go buy new socks! I stayed far away from the sea except to touch it once (so I could say I did!). We ended the day back in Sorrento, had a nice dinner, and hit the hay!

Our amazing Lemon Sorbet!

On Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Pompeii! It was really amazing to see the ruins of the city and hear all about the story of what happened to the city! So much of it is still intact, so that was really really cool to see! We spent about 3 hours there and then took the train back to Sorrento, to do none other than…SHOP! We walked down one of the streets for over two hours, going in an out of all the souvenir shops and they are known for their lemon and orange groves there, it is considers the citrus capital of the world, so of course we HAD to try lemon and orange candy! The chocolate was the best! Lemon flavored chocolate (THE BEST!)…I bought some to bring home, so if you are lucky, you will get to try some!

The boats were so cute!

Sunday morning we woke up early and ran to the train station (literally ran) to catch the train back to Rome so we could spend the day in Rome. We had 20 seconds to get from the gate to the train and we made it!! We were so excited when we actually made it! And then we got to spend the day in Rome! We sat on the Spanish steps and watched the people for a while, then wandered around Rome until it was time to go home! It was such a fun weekend and I am feeling so blessed that I had the opportunity to go to the Amalfi Coast on a whim, planned the day before. That’s one of the greatest things about actually living in Italy and having free weekends to travel and get immersed into the culture. I am absolutely loving Italy and am getting really sad that I only have 5 more weeks here, I can’t believe how fast the time has flown by!

Sorry I have been so bad about updating my blog lately. It has just been a whirlwind of activities and things to do over here (as you can tell), that I haven’t had as much time as I have wanted! I am missing certain things from home (sweet tea, c=Chickfila, Mexican food, GOLDFISH), but I would certainly give those things up to be here forever! I wish you all could come here to visit me because you are who I miss the most!

Praying for each one of you daily and hope the warm Spring weather is treating you well!