i just said goodbye to my mom a couple days ago.  she was here visiting me for about a week - we went to cinque terre last weekend and spent a few nights in manarola, which was beautiful.  we got stuck there an extra night due to a train strike, but luckily we were able to find a cute little apartment to stay in for the day/night where we were able to hang out, enjoy the view, and cook our own delicious dinner.  the rest of the week, we just hung out here in florence in the warm sunshine (finally).  it was so good to have her here, we had a great week together.

obviously made some cat friends in cinque terre

our beautiful meal with italian colored pasta

sunset view from our balcony

gardens in florence

yea so i went back to cinque terre yesterday with some friends...

and did that extremely hard hike, but it was beautiful and worth it

i was so happy to have my dad and alex here this past week.  we spent easter together in santa margherita--one of the most beautiful places on earth.  it was right on the coast and our hotel overlooked the bay, filled with tons of boats.  there were palm trees and brightly colored houses all along the shore line.  we took a train to cinque terre one day, where the houses were built into the hills all along the ocean.  my dad and i took a path between towns, called via dell'amore, and had lunch at a little cafe built into the cliff.  then we hiked between two other towns--we weren't exactly looking for some intense mountain climbing, we just thought it would be another casual trail like the one before.  but instead we walked up and down a billion stone stairs in the mountains.  on easter, we took a boat to portofino, another seaside town.  then back to florence: we pretty much saw all of florence in one day--from piazzale michelangelo to the top of the duomo, and from palazzo pitti and the boboli gardens to piazza signoria and the ponte vecchio.  after one exhausting day of being their tour guide, we spent the rest of the week relaxing, catching up and eating lots and lots of delicious italian food.

alex, dad and me on our hotel balcony

pretty boats in the bay

cinque terre

love locks on via dell'amore

via dell'amore

cinque

the stairs that went forever

there were so many cats in cinque terre

me and alex on the boat to portofino on easter

view of portofino

santa margherita

alex and florence

i'm so blessed that i got to spend a week with two of my favorite people in the world.  we had a lot of fun, and i miss them already!

this weekend i went on a trip through my school to a few cute little medieval towns in italy: perugia, assisi, siena and san gimignano.  we got to eat some free meals, stay in a fancy hotel, had tons of gelato, and it was beautiful.  see for yourself...

Assisi

Assisi had pink bricks in every building

Duomo in Siena

Tower in San Gimignano

towers in San Gim

makin a little love under the flowers

best gelato in the whole world. no joke, i ate seven different flavors

hola, i just got home from spring break in spain!  i went with caroline and met up with a couple of my roommates, amie and kelly, in barcelona.  i had my first experience with ryanair, the low fare airline--we flew to barcelona for only 20 euros, had to pack everything for the entire week (including my purse and giant camera) in my tiny backpack, and fought for the best seats once on the plane since there are no assigned seats.  the take-off and landing were kinda rough, but when we landed an hour later ryanair played their victory song and everyone applauded for making it to spain.

in case of emergency: don't forget to hold your skirt down on the slide

it was weird getting to barcelona in the middle of the night on st. patrick's day.  it was dark and we saw the city for the first time at night, while people dressed as leprechauns stumbled down the streets.  we got pretty lucky with our hostel in barcelona though.  downtown paraiso happened to be located right off la rambla, one of the most well-known streets in the city, filled with little souvenir stands, street performers, and buildings that look like their straight from candy land.

in barcelona, we woke every day, bought fresh fruit and a warm loaf of bread at the corner supermarket, ate out by the fountain in the placa reial.  we went to the beach, saw a bunch of topless women and a couple of completely naked people.  we explored the city down by the water, learned how to use the subway system to go to guell park, a ginormous park filled with gardens and tons of cacti.  we went to the local travelbar for a free dinner and met lots of travelers from all over the world.  needless to say, barcelona was amazing.  the only problem was that apparently they don't speak spanish there.  i tried to prepare myself with the memories of high school spanish, only to find out everyone spoke catalan.

barcelona down by the beach

borat at the beach

one of the many beautiful fountains

hangin at the ice bar

breakfast spot

on wedenesday we headed to sevilla in southern spain, where spanish was a real thing.  our hostel wasn't as trendy as the one in barcelona, but nuevo suizo did have a rooftop garden and was in a really great location.  sevilla was beautiful and warm.  i couldn't stop feeling like i was in florida.  maybe it was because of the overwhelming amount of palm trees, oranges and old people.  the city was really small and reminded me a lot of florence.  we stayed in the city center, while the residential area was separated by a river.  we pretty much saw the whole city in a matter of hours--we went to the real alcazar, a royal palace/tropical garden filled with palm trees, orange trees, lemon trees, fountains, and peacocks.  we sat down by the river, got some sun at the beach, visited the plaza espana, and ate lots of churros con chocolate and tapas for dinner.

i have to say this was an amazing week.  i was loving the warm weather, the beautiful cities, the delicious food.  but there's no doubt, i'm so glad to be back to my little home in florence.

some funny signs hung in the bathroom at my work...

video surveillance area--Leo (who works at TF) with the hat...
for some reason i thought this was real the first time i went to the bathroom there

me and flora

well, i spent the day riding horses and playing with stray cats, but since the hot water is out again, i guess i'll write in my blog instead of showering.  i could not have picked a more perfect day to go to the horse farm/vineyard/winery in chianti.  it was beautiful and sunny and warm.  a few friends and i took a horseback riding tour through olive groves up in the hills.  i shouldn't have admitted that i was the only one with horse riding experience because they stuck me with flora, the 'crazy and stupid' horse, as the italian women at the farm called her.  she was young and spunky and all she wanted to do was run.  i secretly loved her.  we rode through the hills single-file on a one-lane path, but flora would purposely stop every few minutes and then gallop to catch up to the other horses.  she tried to veer off on her own paths, and when the group took pictures at the end of the tour, she suddenly became shy and would walk backwards and turn her head away from the cameras.

flora being camera shy

baby dog playing fetch with me

the farm was like heaven.  there were a bunch of silly little dogs that snuggled in our laps, played fetch every time we would pay attention to them, and ran alongside our horses during the entire tour.  afterwards, we took a tour of the winery where we were taught and shown how to make wine.  we even got to taste some of the wines produced in chianti with our three course lunch.  on the way home, we made a few stops to see the amazing views of the city and countryside, get gelato, and i even made a new cat friend.

so much wine

us in the winery

me and my new cat friend, we named her principessa (princess)

it's finally warm enough to wear flip flops!  this week consisted of a lot of laying out in the sun in the piazza, down by the river, eating pink grapefruit gelato and pino's paninis.  i went on a field trip to the ferrari museum and a balsamic vinegar factory where we got to sample all kinds of balsamic flavors and even chocolates filled with vinegar.  i never thought i'd want to drink balsamic vinegar out of a straw until now.  it was that good.  i also have a 'street photography' project due this week, so i spent a lot of time creeping on strangers around the city.  here are some highlights from the week...

horse and carriage in the piazza 

a real live mario

cute baby at the fountain

ferrari museum

balsamic vinegar factory

cute italian baby

loungin' by the river

down by the river

watching the rowers

caroline napping in the grass

crazy drunk dread man and his puppet show

and the little girl who was oblivious to him