Sorry for not posting earlier in this week, but I needed to prepare for my last 3 finals at Georgia Tech. Yep…I was done with my degree as of Friday night at 9:15pm, when I walked out of my thermodynamics final. Pretty crazy huh? I’m an engineer now! Okay… so as for Italy…this was by far one of the best places ever. We went to Florence, Pisa, and Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre was so beautiful I can’t even describe it to you. Which is why cameras are so helpful in these moments. I sent a picture via instant messenger to my friend, and he was like.. “what is that? a postcard?” noo…. it’s my awesome rebel xt and a beautiful landscape:)
So anyways… we arrived in Florence on Saturday morning and went straight to the Accademia. This is
where Michelangelos’ David is located. I have an illegal picture of me and Samantha in front of David which I shall post once I get it. Seeing David is like seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time. When you get in front of this statue, you can’t believe how absolutely massive it is. You’ve seen pictures before, you read the history, and then you just walk into the room and stare in awe. It was great, and you can definitely see why Michelangelo was so famous in Italy. Afterwards we went to the Duomo, Florence’s Gothic Santa Maria del Fiori Cathedral (pictured at your right). After walking through the cathedral, we paid 6 euros to climb over 400 stairs to the top of the duomo. It was so beautiful to walk around the painting “Last Judgment” by Vasari and Zucccari, which was quite scary if you actually looked at the characters. Well… look at the title and you should understand. It’s pictured below.
We happened to find an amazing lunch withing the markets of Florence. They had pizza and sandwiches for about 2.50 euro. I had a piece of salami pizza and went back for a pesto potato sandwich. Muah it
was magnifique. So… basically if you don’t go inside the Uffizi Gallery to gaze at art all day, we completed all the major sites! We used the rest of the day to explore the markets ( I bought scarves), the glass shops, the Ponte Vecchio ( a beautiful bridge lined with gold and silver shops, nice to look at and wish), and then a awesome dinner we found from our hostel map. The unlisted 12 euro dinner consisted of an appetizer (lasagna), chicken or beef with potatoes and cheese, dessert and your choice of red or white wine. I love these deals. Our hostel apparently was equipped with an awesome bar and indoor pool; both of which we were too worn out to take advantage of. We PTFO’ed (word of the trip), and woke up to take a train to Pisa the next morning. I’m pretty sure it’s self explanatory for you what we saw in Pisa…. But the Leaning Tower of Pisa is just as incredible as you think it would be! Too bad there is nothing else in the city to attract tourists, but I think they do well enough. The tower was built to be a bell tower, however during construction in 1173 it began leaning due to a badly layed foundation, and the soil that it was in. In 1272 upon completing the tower after a short break they tried to compensate by building the top floor uneven. This allowed the tower to “bend” in other direction so not it’s completely crooked. It was quite a sight to see. Don’t worry about the following pictures, it’s what all the tourists were doing 
After our 3.5 hours in Pisa we were off to Cinque Terre, or “five lands” translated from Italian. The gorgeous, alternative to the French Riviera, but BETTER! This was one of the best places I’ve ever been to. Italy food, wine, fun, and beaches! There are 5 cities connected by a 6 hour hike along the mountains by the sea. It was just so beautiful. It was Samantha’s birthday weekend, so we took advantage of it by buying her 2 different amazing desserts. I can’t say much other than the fact that this weekend we hiked for about 4 hours, climbed rocks, took trains between the cities, and ate amazing food. Otherwise, we stayed in a hostel a little far from one of the towns, that had a bus that connected us. However the bus was way overpacked the morning we left, and with the blazing heat, and people falling on each other as we twisted around the mountain side, it was one of the worst experiences of my life, I don’t know if I’ve ever sweat so much in my life. But I’m alive. There’s nothing else I can say… but enjoy the pictures of my AMAZING weekend.. Can I have my honeymoon here?
On the left is Jonathan making us fresh fruit rum drinks on the beach. People were staring at us… but they were jealous. There are no “No open container laws” in Europe… how much better than the US!
