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I've started a new blog with Steven to share our newlywed experiences :) Please follow! www.wetherill720.blogspot.com

A Great Beginning

Save me, cause I need it
And I can't help but feel desperate
My desires seem to be coming to their endings
But I will trust it's not the end
But a great beginning.

Lessons on Persistence and Pleasing Others

From the moment I got to Italy, I knew that I would have to find some sort of a job this summer. When you're living completely off of savings and watching that savings diminish daily, you realize quickly that your supply of savings isn't going to last forever. So, I started to think of some options. Summer jobs are hard to get, no matter what, but this particular summer presents even more issues. Usually people aren't very quick to hire someone who will only be around for three months, but for me, I am only able to work for May and June of this summer because of the wedding in July. So, I knew it would be a challenge to land a job at all. I had planned on trying to work for a catering company in ABQ that I worked at in high school. I figured that the summer is high season for weddings and other special events so it would make sense that they could afford to hire a few extra people just for the summer season. As the time got closer to when I would need to start making that happen, I became discouraged. The major reason that I decided to stop working there when I worked there in the first place was because of the strange hours. I used to work weekends and when I would work it would be from about 3 PM to 2 AM. This made me start to second guess if I really should be working this summer. 


At this point, I turned to God basically asking for some sort of indication that I should or shouldn't work this summer. Then, all of the sudden opportunities started popping up, which of course, led me to believe I should work this summer. Then all of the sudden these opportunities fell short for one reason or another. This put me in a really strange position of really not knowing what to do-- keep pursuing jobs or let it go. They say that as soon as you stop looking (whether it be looking for someone to date, looking for the keys, etc.) that you'll find whatever you were looking for. And this is exactly what happened. A few days after I gave up on finding a job this summer and just settled for being really, really broke, a job offer came in that I couldn't refuse. 


The moral of the story in all of this is that we are not always handed exactly what we ask for. They say that God has three answers every time we ask Him for something: yes, no, and I have something better in mind. In this case, the "I have something better in mind," happened to be a little lesson in persistence. It would have been very easy for me to give up after the first job didn't pan out and just to assume that it wasn't meant to be. But instead, I wanted to be really really sure that I wasn't supposed to work, if that was the case. I figured that if every opportunity that came by didn't work out for some reason, that would be a good indication to give up. But I think God wanted to see how long I'd keep fighting. Sometimes He wants to see if we will fight for the things that we want, and I think most of the time the things that mean the most to us will be worth fighting for. After all, if something's worth having it's worth fighting for, right? 


This is just one of the many hidden lessons that God has taught me while I've been in Italy. It's been amazing to watch how He can teach me lessons in all sorts of unexpected ways. 


Another lesson that I learned this past week was about the desire we have as humans to please others. It's human nature to want to please others and have others think you're a good person, fun to be around, etc. Whatever the case is, we spend a lot of our daily lives worried about the approval of others. At the surface level, there is no issue with this. The issue comes when we begin worrying more about what OTHERS think of us than what GOD thinks of us. At the end of the day, and at the end of our lives, it will be God who we stand in front of and have to explain ourselves to, not the people we live out our human existence with. We have to be very very careful of this very fine line. It's a daily challenge to focus on how God sees us and not be consumed with what others think. 


"Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ." Galatians 1:10

Blessed

The last few weeks have made me see plainly and clearly how incredibly blessed I am. Sometimes the blessings around us get clouded by little annoyances but the past few weeks, I have been able to see God's blessings much more clearly than I was at the beginning of the semester.
Two weeks ago, I went to Paris. Before studying abroad, I had no desire to go to Paris. I didn't really have a reason behind it, although it probably had something to do with not speaking French or having any desire to listen to people speak French. But when my friends and I started planning out trips to take, everyone wanted to go to Paris. That left me with a few options... 1) miss out on traveling with friends, 2) travel by myself somewhere or 3) go with friends somewhere that I didn't really want to go. So I chose option number three because I didn't really want to miss out. I am so glad that I chose to be open to a new experience. Paris was one of my favorite places that I have traveled to, if not my favorite. The language barrier presented some challenges, but it also gave me an entirely new appreciation for the French language, it even made me want to learn it!

My favorite part of the trip was definitely seeing the Eiffel tower. It was definitely the most touristy thing that we saw but it was my personal favorite. Regardless of it being one of the places I would guess most people want to see before the die, the design of the building along with the design of the space surrounding it was just amazing. I could've stayed there all day just looking at it and taking pictures of it. Also, if you ever go, you must climb to the top! It's worth the money and the soreness the next day!
My second favorite part of the trip actually had nothing to do with being in Paris. We stayed in a hostel (which was an experience within itself) and on our last night we decided to make a small dinner and save some money. We bought baguettes, cheese and fruit and ate downstairs in the kitchen at the hostel. Half way through, we asked a guy sitting next to us if he wanted to join us. His name was Jake and he was from Canada. We hung out with him for a while and then a bit later a group of four guys came downstairs to the kitchen. They were very outgoing and they immediately started saying hello to us and one of them looked at us and said "Do you speak Spanish?" I'm usually pretty shy about admitting that I speak Spanish because I get nervous about being able to understand the person and have them understand my broken Spanish, but this time I told them that I did speak it. Immediately they began speaking to me in Spanish and that was the start of the rest of the night. I can't even describe how happy it made me to be speaking Spanish again. I never would've guessed that I would miss speaking a language so much but it was a wonderful feeling to get back into it. We hung out with them for the rest of the night and had a great time with them. It definitely boosted my confidence which I definitely needed before going to Spain at the end of this week!
I could easily tell you the rest of what we did in Paris, but those two things definitely stand out to me and are the most important parts of our weekend there to me :) After we got back from Paris, we were in our last week before spring break. I am always anxious for breaks two or three weeks out from them because I am usually up to my ears in papers, tests, and homework. I wasn't swamped with work this time around (although I did have the most that I've had all semester) but I was anxious for another reason: it was finally time for Steven to visit! The plan was to meet in Milan on Friday, spend a few days there, and then go to Ireland for the rest of the week. As the day got closer, I was more anxious and impatient for the day to finally arrive. I woke up incredibly early on Friday morning, walked to the train station and took a fast train to Milan that continued onto the airport that Steven flew into. When I got to the airport, I managed to navigate my way through the gigantic airport and finally found him waiting for me!
After we finally got to see each other, we proceeded to explore Milan together, followed by Ireland, then Rome, then finally I got to show him around the place that has become my home! Rather than explaining what we did in all of those places, I'll let the pictures do the talking!

Public transportation is a wonderful thing! We need more of it in Albuquerque! 

The Duomo. By far our favorite site! 

A tour of the San Siro stadium! Where we also got to watch Intermilan play! 

Unfortunately our pictures from Ireland and Rome are MIA right now but hopefully we'll get them back soon! We had a wonderful time in both places though :) 

Finally we came back to Florence where I was able to show Steven around all the places that I go frequently. It was so nice to be able to relax, cook together, and just explore many cities together. Our final adventure together was to Barcelona. After my experience speaking Spanish in Paris, I was really really excited to get to speak Spanish in Barcelona. My confidence was higher than normal and I couldn't wait to get there. Barcelona is now my favorite place that I have visited, a combination of great company, wonderful food, and a language that I love so very much. 

La Sagrada Famlia

Port de Barcelona

Our best friends at La Sagrada

Authentic Paella! 

A gigantic food market that specializes in fish

Bestfriend:)

The harbor

Like I stated at the beginning, the last few weeks have really been focused around the fact that I am incredibly blessed. I am blessed to be studying abroad in Italy, to be learning from passionate teachers, to be surrounded by great friends, to have a wonderful fiancé who is selfless and who provides for me, to travel around Europe with my best friend and the person I am going to spend the rest of my life with, to learn about different cultures and languages not in a text book but in real life, and finally and mainly to learn more and more everyday that there is a great big God who loves me very much and who is taking care of every detail in my life. 

Comforts of home

There is a moment after you move to a new place, a moment when you all of the sudden find that the new place actually feels like home. It's no longer a foreign place to you, but it finally feels just right, it finally becomes a place that you can miss when you're away from it. Florence has slowly started to feel this way to me. Sometimes it's just because of a long day at school, sometimes it's a weekend trip, but lately I've been finding that I actually have a desire to go back to my apartment at the end of the day. This weekend, I went to Rome with Sally and Alex to visit Shelby. We had a great time but somewhere in between seeing the Roman Forum and St. Peter's, I found myself missing Florence. Of course I still miss my actual home in Albuquerque more than I missed Florence, but while we were in Rome, I found myself wanting to return to Florence, and feeling less overwhelmed with my desire to return to Albuquerque. It was a different experience for me. Like I said, I've had days where I just can't wait to get home and be comfortable in my apartment but this was something completely different. A little perspective can go a long way in helping you to see the blessings that have been right in front of you all along. I found myself being incredibly thankful for the things that have become familiar in Florence, like knowing the street names of places I need to go, having a hot shower and having internet that works well. I don't think I would've been as thankful for those things without some perspective, in fact I probably have taken them all for granted since I got to Florence. It's really easy to get into a routine where you don't notice certain blessings that are right in front of you, in fact once you start to get familiar with a place, you only seem to notice the things that you are missing, the things you think should be different. Somewhere in between the time that we arrived in Florence and when we went to Rome, I lost that perspective of how lucky I am to be here and that nothing else really matters. It's different here, but that doesn't mean it's worse. It is such a blessing to be studying abroad and I have to keep that in perspective because without that perspective, I will easily be able to pick out a 100 different things that I think should be different than the way that they are.

Alright, with that out of the way, let me tell you about Roma! We started off our trip on Friday at 8:15AM. Our train was scheduled to leave at 9:13 but we wanted to get some breakfast along the way. We decided to go to McDonald's, which I know sounds like a complete outrage. But let me tell you that McDonald's is quite different here. The actual food doesn't taste much different but the McDonald's here have an entire pastry/coffee section. The pastries are pretty run of the mill, croissants with chocolate or cream in them or just plain. We each ordered what we thought was a plain croissant but ended up having cream in the middle, which was fine with us! We also got cappuccinos and I have to say, they are they prettiest I've had so far in Italy.

After our breakfast, we walked across the street to the train station. We bought our train tickets (which were €18 one way!) and headed to our train. We got situated and had our "tourist" moment of being really excited to be on our first train. 

Our train ride took almost 4 hours because we opted for the cheaper fair, but I honestly really enjoyed having a long train ride. We were able to see the entire country side-- most of which was still covered in snow. It was really nice to be able to enjoy the view, read my Kindle and just relax for a few hours. When we got to Rome, we met up with Shelby. Immediately, I noticed and remembered how different Rome is from Florence. It is a lot bigger and much more urban than Florence is, especially around the train station. We hoped onto a bus that took us towards Shelby's apartment. Along the way we were able to see many monuments and sites that we eventually walked back to to see more closely. When we got off the bus, we were starving. We decided that we wanted pizza for lunch but on the way we stopped so that Shelby could tell us about one of the specialties in Rome. It's called supplí and it's basically a ball of rice, sauce and mozzarella that is deep fried. I'm telling you, it's worth getting on a plane right now just to taste this amazing creation. We got two and shared them between the four of us. Then we headed to the pizza place and finally continued onto Shelby's apartment. Immediately I was able to notice how different her living situation is from ours. Her apartment is about the same size but is decorated much more modernly, with paintings and decór from Ikea. We got settled in for a few minutes and then headed out to see some sites. On our list of things that we saw was the Pantheon, the Four Rivers Fountain by Bernini in the Piaza Novonna, the Vittorio Emanuele monument- which the people in Rome refer to as God's Typewriter, the Roman Forum, and finally we caught a bus across the city to get the best gelato in town which we ate in St. Peter's square. We finished off the evening at dinner with some of friends from school who were on the school field trip. After dinner we all headed to the Trevi fountain to throw in our coins! The legend is that if you throw one coin in, you'll come back to Italy, if you throw in two, you'll come back to Rome, and if you throw in three you'll fall in love. I only threw in two this time:)

The next morning we woke up early and headed back to St. Peter's square. When we got there, there were crowds of people which is unusual for this time of year. When we got into the square there were large tv's and they were showing some sort of ceremony. We had heard that a cardinal was being inaugurated at some point during the weekend and we assumed this was the ceremony. It was really cool being able to see all of the people watching the Pope inaugurate the cardinal. After watching for a few minutes, Sally and Alex headed to the Vatican and Shelby and I headed to Villa Borghese which is a gigantic park in Rome. We found a cool place to take some pictures for my photography class and just walked around. We ate lunch at an oddly fancy place in the middle of the park and then headed back to meet Alex and Sally. We all got another helping of gelato from the best place in Rome and split up again. Shelby had some errands to run so she went home while Alex, Sally, and I headed to the Colosseum. We ended up waiting for a very long time for our bus (the theme of the weekend when Shelby wasn't around) and we got off on a stop right outside of the Colosseum. We took some photos then walked around a bit and then finally headed home. I went out with Shelby later to get food from the grocery store to make dinner. She made us all (including Kristen, Kim and Jeanne) paella which is a Spanish rice dish which includes veggies, chicken, sausage and rice all cooked in white wine. It is actually typically made with seafood but this variation was just as delicious! 

On our final day in Rome, Sally and Alex went back to St. Peter's to go to the Basilica which was closed the day before for the inauguration. It turns out that it was also closed on Sunday because of the service. But while they were off doing their own thing, Shelby and I headed to the industrial district in Rome. Most places in Rome have a very antique feel because of all of the ancient buildings, ruins and monuments but this district had a more urban feel. We headed to a Steve McCurry exhibit that was being held in the old meat packing district. The exhibit was in an old warehouse that was used in the meat packing industry. It had a really interesting feel to it and the exhibit was fantastic. We took some more photos for my photography project and finally headed back to Shelby's apartment. We had supplí one last time before Sally, Alex and I headed back to Florence. 

This is actually where the story gets the most interesting... We had given ourselves about an hour and a half to get from Shelby's apartment to the train station. We stopped on the way to get a cappuccino and then waited for our bus... for a long, long time. After about 30 minutes of waiting for it, it finally arrived. The bus was incredibly packed with people who unfortunately were all going to the train station as well. When we arrived at the station, it was 3:05 and our train was at 3:13. All at once we started sprinting to the ticket station. We bought our tickets together to save time and then continued sprinting to our track. Turns out our train was at the furthest track away, and was actually not even in line with the main tracks but further back away from the main part of the station. We continued running not really even knowing where our train would be until we finally found the track and the train had already departed. We sat down for a minute trying to catch our breath and then headed back to the ticket station. As we were walking, I had my light bulb moment. In Italy, you have to validate your train ticket when it is one without a seat assignment. This is because you are able to use the ticket from the time you buy it until a month later. The validation lets the conductor know that you are using it for the specific day that you are using it for. Without validating the ticket, you can get a nasty fine. In my light bulb moment, I looked at Sally and Alex and I realized that we would never have thought to validate our tickets. We knew that we had to but because we were so short on time, we never would've thought in those moments to do that. I truly think that it was a God moment that we missed our train and therefore missed out on paying a hefty fine. 

We finally arrived back in Florence around 10:30 and we were all completely exhausted. I still don't know if my body has caught up from this past weekend. We are going to Paris this Thursday and I can't wait! I cannot believe how fast spring break is coming up and I can't wait to spend it with Steven! As much as I want to see him though, I also want time to stop right here. I know that the end of my semester abroad is quickly approaching and I am really wanting to savor every moment of it! I knew it would fly by and with the weather heating up, the days really are slipping through my fingers. I only have two more days in Florence this week and four next week before I get to see Steven and 2/3 of my semester abroad will be over. I can't believe it! 

I'll update y'all next weekend about Paris...I am so excited! Au revoir!

Carnival

It seems like the time has been flying by, but I'm not sure that it really has. Time is a strange thing here because it's never constant. The first 10 hours of the tend to speed by but the last half of the day drags on, but it's not always like that. I just looked back and saw that we've been here for 38 days. That is over one third of the time that we will spend here. It's weird to think that we're approaching the half way mark already and I have very mixed emotions about it all. On one hand, I'm starting to get pretty homesick. The things that used to be really exciting and different about Italy are now starting to be annoying, strange and inconvenient. We are headed out of what everyone refers to as the honeymoon phase of our semester abroad. On the other side of it, I wish there was more time. I guess the difference is I don't want more time to explore Florence, but I want more time to explore the rest of Europe. Even though cultural aspects are the same in many Italian cities, it's still exciting to go to a new city in Italy and see new things. Maybe we just haven't found any new things to see in Florence lately and that's why it's getting monotonous.

To be honest, I don't have much to report about the last two weeks. With the exception of yesterday, which I'll get to, we haven't done much. Florence (and most of Europe) has been experiencing the coldest winter in over 25 years. This means that we spend every moment either at school or at home. We haven't gone out to explore or find a new place and even going to the grocery store is something we have come to dread. But even with the cold and with the end of the said "honeymoon period," I'm still incredible happy and blessed to be here. I am loving my classes and I love how comfortable I am getting with friends here. Meeting new friends is always exciting but also difficult because you are starting from square one. At this point, I am extremely comfortable with the friends that I do have here. It's very similar to what I experience freshmen year at High Point, which was not being used to the amount of friends that I have. Like at HPU, I have many acquaintances in Florence but my list of close friends is pretty small. Between schedule conflicts and just being busy travelling and doing school work, it's not always easy to find someone to spend time with. But I'm still getting closer to the friends I have and it's great settling into a comfortable friendship.

Speaking of that comfortable friendship, yesterday Sally, Alex, and I went to Venice with our friends from Drew University. We met Kim, Jeanne and Kristen on our first night in Italy. Saci had a dinner for all of the students that night and afterwards we ended up going to get gelato at a place around the corner from the school. As we were trying all of the amazing flavors, three other girls walked into the gelateria. Eventually, they asked us if we were from Saci. They ended up sitting with us to eat gelato and there a wonderful friendship was born. We have all said multiple times that we are so lucky to have met each other because without this group of friends, we wouldn't have many other people to hang out with. So I am very thankful for our Jersey girls :) Anyways, yesterday we went to Venice! We booked the trip with a company called Bus2Alps that basically provides trips for college students from Florence and other areas in Italy to different places around Europe. This trip only included the transportation to and from Venice as well as guides to help us if we needed help getting around the city. The bus ride was almost 4 hours long so by the time we got there, we were ready to eat lunch. Most of us hadn't eaten much yet that day so we were needing food quickly. We took a water bus (which is the most efficient way to get around the city- especially when it is so cold) to one of Venice's islands (there are around 100). The island is called Murano. When we got there, we found a restaurant to eat at.

Venice is very famous for it's seafood since it is completely surrounded by water. I had debated getting seafood but ended up passing on it because I was planning on getting something with seafood for dinner. I ended up getting penne with four cheeses. When I saw it on the menu, I thought it was going to be pasta with sauce and then cheeses on top, but when I got it, it was macaroni and cheese. I was so excited, in fact I couldn't stop raving about it all day. It wasn't quite our version of mac and cheese but it definitely hit the spot. I was able to try a little bit of everyone elses seafood so that made it a great lunch. We enjoyed our time as we tried to thaw out from the boat ride over to Murano (which took close to an hour and a half). It was a great lunch and provided some new experiences for everyone- especially Kristen who ate an entire baby octopus. Jeanne also tried one of the tentacles! No one else was brave enough to.

After we warmed up, we decided to brace the cold once again. We walked around Murano for a little bit popping into every other store to look at the famous murano glass. Every shop pretty much had the same stuff, just different designs and different specialities. I still don't know how all of those shops stay in business but they must do alright for themselves. We got to see a lot of bridges that connected the islands over the waterways, there are over 400 bridges in Venice. It's such a strange concept to see a town that's made up of bridges and canals but it was really beautiful. 

After exploring a little bit, we decided to head back to San Marco, which is the main part of Venice where the Carnival is. When we got there, we took a quick cappuccino break to warm up and then started exploring. Mostly, we just walked around. We found the main square of San Marco that was basically set up like a huge concert. There was a fenced in area where people were dancing and celebrating. There were also large shops near the fenced in area that had candies and other food. We stopped there for a little just to take it all in and then continued browsing shops. We ended up stopping to get a quick dinner at some point. We each got a slice of pizza and later on Sally and I stopped to get a few pastries (I have to have something sweet after every meal it seems). We ended up back at the main square and continued dancing and having fun until it was time to head back to the bus to go home! Because of the bad weather, we didn't end up getting back to our apartment until 3 AM but it was a great trip. I know we will always remember how cold it was, but we'll also remember how much fun we had despite the cold!!

This weekend I am going to Rome with Sally and Alex to see Shelby! The next weekend I'm going to Paris and then the weekend after that Steven Wetherill will be here!!! I can't wait to see my boy:) Ciao! 

Whirlwind

The last week has been a whirlwind of many, many things. It was definitely one of those weeks where I look back and wonder if a month has actually gone by. I looked at the calendar today and realized that there are only 12 weeks left in our program at Saci. I can't believe that, at all. Even though we've only been here for a few weeks, thinking that there is only three months left is a strange, strange feeling. Part of me feels like I never want to leave this place (even though it does have its flaws) but I know that there is a lot of excitement waiting for me when I get home. Still, I'm going to try not to countdown that days, I never enjoy them as much that way.

I'm not sure even where to begin summarizing the last week. I guess I'll start at square one... On Monday, my camera was stolen. So that was basically the major thing of this week. I had to report the crime to the police and I've been dealing with the school all week trying to find a solution. So far, we haven't figured anything out but I'm hopeful for something soon. When I figured out that the camera was missing, I was pretty upset, naturally. I don't think I was as upset because it was gone as I was just that it didn't feel safe to leave stuff around the apartment. But, it is safe, unfortunately we think it was some workers who were fixing a leaking pipe outside on our terrace. But nonetheless, as it is with most things in life, a lesson came out of the situation. The first thing that popped into my head after I had calmed down about the situation was this verse: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:21. The reason that this popped into my head was because a huge part of me was upset solely because I didn't have something I really treasured. As everyone knows, my camera is my baby and so far since I've been here, taking pictures has been one of the few things that has really made me happy on a bad day. But after remembering this verse, I realized that there was a good lesson in losing something so precious to me. I realized that I shouldn't hold the material things of this world so close to my heart, because they are not eternal. I'm not saying that we should sell all of our possessions but I think we should all be more careful about where our hearts really are at. I know I've needed many heart checks lately and I know that the Lord is really working in me through this time in Italy. Aside from this instance, meeting new people can sometimes bring out a really judgmental side of myself. When I first got here, I had a really hard time making friends. I was meeting tons of people but I couldn't swallow my pride and actually pursue any of those people. I kept judging each person I met and finding something that I didn't see as desirable within them. It has definitely been a reality check for me to realize that I am being judged as well by others but most importantly by God Himself. Two lessons from that: having thick skin and not caring about what people think of me, and also trying to love every person I meet in the same way that their Father loves them.

Rather than giving you a play by play of what I did the rest of the week, I'll show you a few pictures. Taken with my iPhone:)

On Tuesday, I decided to make something different for dinner. Since we've been here we've only eaten pasta and rice. I made baked chicken with vegetables (potatoes, zucchini, and broccoli). For those of you that know me, I do NOT like vegetables but the produce is so fresh here that it's growing on me!

On Thursday, my drawing class went to the Academia to draw Michelangelo's statue David. I mentioned earlier that I just read the novel "David" by Mary Hoffman. Ever since reading that I have been so anxious to see it again in person. If you like history, art or just like a good storyline, you should read this book! I loved getting to draw it, too. Even though my sketches are pathetic in comparison to the masterpiece that was standing in front of me, I actually found some joy in drawing and I couldn't be more thankful for that! My drawing classes have gotten better but I still struggle and get frustrated that everyone in the class seems to be weeks ahead of me even though it's only been less than a month of class. But things are getting better! 

Fridays have become our shopping day. We always seem to be out of something on Fridays so we are in a habit of going to the grocery store every Friday. But before we went to the store, we headed to this wonderful pizza place, Pizzeria O'Vesuvio. The three of us split these two pizzas. The left on is a simple margherita pizza and on the right is their self-named pizza, O'Vesuvio. It had mozzarella, tomatoes, a spicy Italian sausage and finally hot sauce! I am embarrassed to say that it was a little spicy for my taste (I need to work out my taste buds with some green chile!) but it was delicious nonetheless. Margherita pizzas are so simple but so tasty. The best cheese pizza ever! 

We finished the afternoon off with a cappuccino and some down time to read our Kindles. I still can't get over how delicious (and cheap!) coffee is here. 

On Saturday, we were getting antsy to go somewhere. We had thought about taking a day trip to somewhere close by but we finally decided on doing something locally. We had seen mountains in the area and so we decided that we would just walk towards them and see what happened. Well, when we started walking, we realized how far away they were but found a zig-zagging pathway that we decided to follow. The path had a steep incline but it was well worth it for the views. Half way up we stopped to take some pictures (see first two photos). Then we continued up the path and came to a giant plaza with some interesting tribal artists playing music. The plaza overlooks the entire city of Florence. The first time I was in Florence, Mr. Raynor took us to the top of the city but a different way than we had gone. It was beautiful. We all ate our lunches that we had bought and just enjoyed the warm-ish weather. It was still cold even in the sun but I was definitely loving the vitamin D. 

Overall the last week has been very good! Obviously some downsides but there is always a silver lining! Ciao!