So this weekend I got to go to some pretty cool places. I’ll start with the first excursion of the weekend: Pesaro. On Saturday (Sabato) me and a few other girls decided to spend the afternoon at the beach nearby in Pesaro. So after much confusion over bus schedules, we hopped on a bus to Urbino, then changed busses there to go on to Pesaro. We made friends on the bus with some nice Sicilians, the girl (Christina) spoke English quite well. Once there we took a cab to the beach. We had to rent an umbrella, but no big deal. Then we headed for the water. It was light blue, clear, and teeming with..JELLYFISH! They were everywhere, and hard to see; they were completely clear, some only 3 inches wide, some 6 inches, and they had 4 purple veins running along their backs. I fortunately turned out to be some sort of jellyfish-whisperer and could spot them easily and help us get around them. At one point Molly and Emma were completely surrounded by a school of like 100 jellyfish and I had to lead them out as they hysterically screamed, haha. Apparently it was some sort of phenomenon with all the jellyfish, it never has happened like that before so our Italian teacher said when we told her what happened. After 3 hours we went home. Then we spent the evening watching the World Cup, USA v. England, in the piazza. A pretty good day. (=
But YESTERDAY took the cake thus far for excursions. I went to………FLORENCE!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooo!!!! I was so happy! The school organized a trip to Arezzo (where the guy who made up solfedge came from, Guido of Arezzo), and if we wanted, we could take the train from there to Firenze (Florence). We got up at 6am, took the bus, got on the train at 9:57, and arrived in Firenze at 10:30ish.
Once we arrived in Firenze we walked straight for the famous Duomo. Had lunch, one of the best caprese pizzas I have ever had, and others got gelato (the gelato lady there told me she needed a nice American friend…I agreed). We took a lot of pictures of the Duomo and the Baptismal chapel that sits in the front, bought some gifts for our families, and headed towards famous Ponte Vecchio, since the Duomo wasn’t open till later. On the way we stopped at the Palazzo di Medici (the Medici Palace, the Medici’s were the family that governed/ruled Florence back in the day..) and took a lot of pictures with the famous Poseidon fountain, and the exact replica of The David. We decided to go inside the palace and see the whole thing. It was spectacular, so much history there! The main “conference/ball” room was immaculate. The ceiling was covered in gold and the walls all around the football size room were painted floor to ceiling with beautiful frescos. Lining the walls were the originals of some very famous statues. They seemed to have the complete collection of the Hercules statues. The rest of the Palace was just as breathtaking. After, we tried to make our way to Ponte Vecchio but were intrigued by the line of performing-human-statues that lined the road to the Arno river. The actors we so still…and loving the tourists. They were painted all white and when you approached them, they would come to life to take a picture with you. Well…unfourtunatle a statue of Cupid got a hold of me and he literally would NOT LET GO! I, amidst his many winks and smooch noises, pried myself off laughing hysterically, only to be grabbed by a neighboring statue who got down on his knees and clamped his hand down on mine, I was stuck, haha! It was all in good fun though (don’t worry dad), they just wanted our money haha. We then finally made it to the famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio, that lies over the Arno river. Of course, as opera singers, we HAD to sing “O mio babbino caro” on the bridge (there is a line about throwing yourself off the Ponte Vecchio into the Arno river), don’t worry…I have it filmed. After many pictures and perusing the famous jewelry stores we headed back to the Duomo. It was incredible, the things that must have taken place there just made you catch your breath as you entered. Wow. I lit a candle while there, I just had to. Then we decided to go next door and climb the tower so we could get the view of the entire city. It was FOUR HUNDERED AND THIRTEEN STEPS! Okay okay, some of you might be rolling your eyes like that’s no big deal, but it not only was steep, it was narrow and people coming down nearly knocked you down the steps…and I’d been walking ALL day…and I’m just a wimp I guess. Anyway, the view was SO worth it. You could see everything, good thing it was a clear day. After we got back down (nearly falling in an exhausted heap right there) we made our way back to the station and looked in shops. We got back to Urbania safe and sound, our bodies slightly the worse for wear, but alive. A GREAT day.
Tonight (after rehearsals) we’ll watch the World Cup, Italy v. Paraguay, in the square! Fun!
Love you all!
Maren
Ps..staff infection is nearly gone! The pain at least is pretty much gone, praise God! Thank you for all your prayers.
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