Beth and Friends’ Trip to Strasbourg, and My Amazing Seven Days in Italy

Wow. I have no idea where to begin talking about my break, as I did SO MANY THINGS, and loved every minute of it. Even when it was raining.

Two Thursdays ago, the 1st, was when my break started. I knew Beth would be arriving in Strasbourg then, but we had had some communication troubles, so I was just waiting for her to call me to tell me where she was and I’d just meet her. After I found her and her friends (and met Lindsay and Amber for the first time), we did small things around the city – I managed to get them to the hotel (I don’t know Strasbourg by car very well), we went to the Syracuse center, and the conservatoire. We ate dinner at this really cute creperie that was recommended to me, but I had never been there before. Friday was our touristy Strasbourg day, with a walk to the European Institutions (Council of Europe, the Court of Human Rights (which is the court of the Council of Europe), and the European Parliament (which is part of the European Union – not the same as the Council of Europe), then a little stroll through Orangerie, the biggest park in Strasbourg. We made our way back towards the center of the city, with a little stroll through my favorite farmer’s market in Strasbourg. After lunch and a little shopping, we took a walk through the Cathédrale. Before Italy, the Strasbourg cathedral was far and away my favorite. But I’ll get to Italy later. Saturday was our excursions-outside-Strasbourg day, with a trip to the chocolate museum in the morning, lunch in Obernai, a cute town just north of the Route du Vin, and then we went to two towns on the Wine Route for wine tasting. I decided it was much more fun to go wine tasting with our small group of five than with the group of 60-odd Syracuse students. Saturday dinner was our second night of Alsatian food, which is always scrumptious in my opinion. After a stroll through Petite France Sunday morning, we made our way back to the car, and drove to Baden-Baden, where Beth and friends could take advantage of the baths. We ate lunch, and then Beth drove me to the Baden-Karlsruhe airport for my flight to Italy.

After the flight, which landed in Pisa, and the bus to Florence, I managed to find my hostel. My first view of my hostel wasn’t so great – the entrance stairs to the building are really sketchy looking. However, my hostel was actually quite nice. I was in the only multi-bed room, and the rest of the hostel was really more like a hotel. Linens and towels were supplied (hooray!), and the bed wasn’t so bad. Monday, I set out for breakfast and to meet my friend Lilly, who’s studying in Bologna this semester and decided to come down to Florence for the day to be with me. She was actually my RA at Wellesley my first year, and was my fellow RA last semester, and now we met up in Italy… bizarre. Anyways, she missed her train, so I took my own little walk through Florence while I waited for the later train to come in. I visited the Church of San Marco (church #1), where I spoke with one of the priests of the church. He was quite chatty, and very nice. He pointed out a painting that had never been restored, and it was still quite impressive. After that church, I walked through Piazza della Liberte, and then to Fortezza da Basso. Sadly, the only English written on the sign at the fort was “NO TOURISTS,” so I decided I probably should just stick to the outside of the fort, which had a nice little garden. It was then time to go meet Lilly at the train station. Our first stop was the Church of Santa Maria Novella (church #2), which houses the first fresco to use three dimensional perspectives. It was pretty cool. We then walked to some of the biggest sites in Florence – the Baptistery and the Duomo (cathedral – church #3). The interesting thing about Italian gothic architecture is that it is much more plastery than French gothic architecture. Whereas the French went for ornate and decorated, the Italians chose white stone and other decorative stones to place inside. I didn’t really appreciate this style of architecture at first, but the longer I stayed in Italy, the more I became accustomed to it and the more I liked it. The Duomo is a pretty building, but probably wasn’t my favorite cathedral in Italy. It’s really big, and has quite a nice façade, but that’s about it. The Baptistery was very impressive, with gold mosaics on the walls depicting all sorts of stories of Christianity’s history, whether from the bible or the disciples. Lilly sat in the Baptistery a while, just soaking in the beautifulness. We then made our way to Piazza della Signoria, where my personal favorite site of Florence is located. Palazzo Vecchio, one of the homes of the great Medici of Florence, looks out on to this piazza, and the Uffizi Gallery is just off Piazza della Signoria. In front of Palazzo Vecchio are a line of statues, some of which are copies (there is a copy of Michelangelo’s David), and there is the Neptune fountain, which for all its size actually isn’t that impressive as far as Florentine statues go. However, my favoritest part of this piazza is the Loggia della Signoria, which is an open-air museum that holds around a dozen statues (museum #1). I can’t quite figure out why I loved this loggia so much, but all the statues it holds are amazing, each with their own unique character, and just the ease (and the fact that it’s free) of seeing these wonderful works of art was a very fulfilling feeling. Pretty much every day, I made a point of walking by the Loggia della Signoria, just so I could admire the statues one more time. But, back to our day… We went into Palazzo Vecchio, but decided we were too hungry to actually pay for admission, and so went on a hunt for a restaurant. We went to this restaurant frequented by locals – so it was a good thing Lilly speaks Italian. :) We shared a table with these two men, and Lilly talked up a storm with one of them (the other left shortly after we sat down, and the man who took his place was less inclined to chat). It was quite an experience… Even though I could understand hardly anything of what was said, just the animation of their conversation and of the restaurant was really cool. And the man Lilly was talking to kept filling our glasses with chianti, which was pretty good, but I definitely can’t drink a lot at lunch time. He only filled my glass once when I wasn’t keeping a close eye on it, once I had decided I had had enough. After lunch, we went on a hunt for gelato, and walked over Ponte Vecchio as we ate it. Ponte Vecchio is pretty cool – it’s a bridge lined with jewelry shops, but if you’re on the bank of the Arno looking at the bridge, you just see the outside walls of the shops, which are still a sort of stucco. It’s also a really pretty bridge from the outside, and the jewelry is quite nice, though way out of my price range. These jewelry stores, by the way, replaced the tanner’s shops that used to be on Ponte Vecchio. After the people of Florence complained about the stench, I believe the Medici kicked them off and installed jewelry shops in their place. By this time, Lilly had to get back to the train station to return to Bologna. We parted at the train station, I went and had a little down time at the hostel, and then went out to dinner (ate yummy Italian pizza) and went to see a concert by a flautist and an organist. Unfortunately, I missed the small print that said a ticket cost €11, and the concert was almost worth the price. The music was amazing, and I really enjoyed it, but I didn’t like the organist’s attitude. He didn’t tuck in his shirt, and every time he got off the organ bench, he would swing his legs around as if for no regard that it looked like he was still a seven-year-old boy who didn’t know concert etiquette. It was strange. The flautist, on the other hand, was much more modest, and didn’t even want to bow at the end of her pieces. Quite a difference between the two musicians, even though both played very well.

Goodness, this is going to be a long post. I’ve only gotten through Monday… I will apologize now, and hope that I’m not taking too much of your time by posting so much.

Tuesday – first day on my own in Florence. I started the day at the Academy (museum #2), where Michelangelo’s David is housed – the real version. I actually got to be the first one in the Academy, courtesy of making my reservation, but was a little silly. I decided to see all of the museum and not have to back track, so I went and looked through the collection of the Medici’s musical instruments that are also in the Academy, so David was pretty crowded by the time I got to him. However, he’s also pretty big, so it wasn’t such a hassle. The David is truly an amazing work of art. Every part of the statue is sculpted so well and with such precision, such detail to the human body – it’s unbelievable. I could stand in front David for a very long time before I would truly get bored, but with so many tourists, the experience was slightly lessened. No picture really does the statue justice, though. Seeing David in all his real glory was simply amazing. After seeing the wonderfulness that is David, I took a little trip to the Church of Santissima Annunciata and the Spedali degli Innocenti. The church (church #4), again, was in that unique Italian gothic style, and was quite beautiful inside. The Spedali degli Innocenti was a cute building, and I really enjoyed the gallery that it also houses. This hospital was used to care for orphans, who would be left outside the hospital when the mothers didn’t want the child anymore. Evidently, the hospital also cared for the mothers, but I couldn’t figure out how exactly. The Gallery (museum #3), which was not very large, held another work of art that ranks among my favorites of Florence. It was a white terra cotta of Madonna and Child by Luca della Robbia. The simple white color, with the gloss, just made the two look so pure and content – I couldn’t help but take a few pictures of it. After the Spedali, I visited the Archeological Museum (museum #4), which is a little deceptive in its size. It took me a little while to get to the exhibits, but I ended up spending a very long time admiring the Etruscan, Roman, Greek, and Egyptian artifacts it holds. I actually felt a little museum-ed out after this museum, but as it was only lunch time, it was far too early to call it a day. I got a panini for lunch, and then made my way to the Medici Chapels (church #5), where the Medici family, the ruling family of Florence, is buried. I snuck some pictures of the Prince’s Chapel and the tombs of two Medici, for whom Michelangelo sculpted their funerary statues. The Prince’s Chapel, though I could tell it was an impressive room, was almost entirely covered in scaffolding, due to a falling ceiling tile in 1999 - they’re still trying to figure out why it fell down, and are trying to keep others from falling. So it wasn’t quite as impressive as I think it could’ve been, but at least I didn’t have any tiles fall on me. Post Medici Chapels, I went to the Church of San Lorenzo (church #6), which was another beautiful church. Sadly, though, pictures weren’t allowed, and I didn’t feel comfortable sneaking pictures of this church. Which means, now, I don’t remember it too well. :( Guess that’s what happens when you keep yourself really busy when you travel. I then wandered through all the market stalls by San Lorenzo, and somehow ended up at the train station, though I was trying to get back to the Duomo. I managed to find my way around, and went to the Museum of the Works of the Duomo (museum #5), where all the retired statues and other works of art from the Duomo, Baptistery, and Campanile are now housed in safer conditions than the outside elements can offer. This museum also had quite a number of interesting works, but I was really too tired to fully appreciate them. And, one of the most famous works of art was naturally under restoration. Bummer. I definitely declared myself done after that, and went to bed after I had eaten dinner.

Wednesday proved to be a very interesting day. I had a reservation for 8:30 at the Uffizi (there’s no other way to get into this museum without waiting FOREVER), and so got to the museum bright and early to claim my reservation, only to find out that it was closed for a “staff meeting” until 10:45. Not cool. I decided I’d just go back later, and I’d try Palazzo Pitti, which is the second most famous art museum in Florence (after the Uffizi). They, too, were closed until 10ish for a “staff meeting.” I pulled the frustrated tourist stunt, as I was getting slightly frustrated by this time, and got my Palazzo Pitti reservation OKed for Thursday, just in case things got a little hairy. To kill time, I wandered around to some other churches that I thought looked interesting in my €5 guide I had bought, but both churches I tried looked closed (which I thought was very strange – churches are never closed), so I only saw the outsides. I decided just to get some gelato instead and sit in my favorite loggia until the Uffizi opened, since nothing seemed to be going how I wanted it to. At 10:30, I went back to the Uffizi to claim my reservation – only to get in an incredibly long line. After an hour, first waiting in the line to get my ticket, then waiting in another line to actually get into the museum, I FINALLY got into the Uffizi (museum #6). So, it was about 3 hours after my reservation until I finally got in. The nice elderly couple I chatted with in the reservation line had heard that the museum workers had gone on strike that day, and that was the reason for the late opening and the early closing on Wednesday. That’s why I think it was a “staff meeting,” and not a real staff meeting. Hmph. Once I got into the museum, though, I just took a deep breath to get rid of the frustrations I had been surrounded with from the other upset tourists, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The museum is quite large, and has SO many paintings. I’m hoping I didn’t miss any rooms, but as there are 45, it’s possible I may have missed one or two. Just in case, I bought the official guide to all the works, so now I can go back to the Uffizi any time I want. :) After my tour through the centuries of artwork the Uffizi holds, I went back and forth if I still wanted to go to Palazzo Pitti or not. It was only about 2, so I had time before the museum closed at 5. Finally, I decided that I just wanted to get all the art museums done in one day, and have a relaxing, unplanned day in Florence on Thursday, and went to Palazzo Pitti (museum #6). Pitti Palace is another of the Medici family’s residencies, but some of the rooms they lived in have now been converted into the museums that the palace holds. I just went to the Galleria and the royal apartments, but there’s also a silver museum, porcelain museum, costume museum, and a couple of others I can’t currently remember. The Galleria was also a very nice collection of paintings, but much more portrait-y than the Uffizi. Most of the paintings in Palazzo Pitti were of famous people, or at least people worthy of posing for paintings, whereas the Uffizi held more paintings not centered on portraits. I saw two conflicting signs in Palazzo Pitti, one that said pictures were not allowed, and one that didn’t mention whether they were or not, so I got three pictures of interesting paintings until the people caught me and said I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. Whoops. While I was in Palazzo Pitti, I met these three ladies, two of whom were definitely English and the third spoke English but I don’t think she’s originally from an English-speaking country. They were nice, and chatted with them between rooms, and they gave me a recommendation to visit Santa Croce, another church in Florence, which I already had an inkling to visit. So then I pretty much decided that I’d go there on Thursday. (I also bought the guide for Palazzo Pitti, which means that I didn’t have to go to the other museums the palace holds, as the guide contains the works in all of the museums. :) ) After Palazzo Pitti, though, I was beat. On my way back to the hostel, I stopped at one of the stalls to buy a belt, as the stalls in Florence sell the belt I have been searching for for a very long time, and it’s no longer sold in the States. I had bought the white version on Monday, but I found a stall with a black belt, and though the original price was €5, when I said it was a little expensive, the man said I could get it for €3. Hee hee. I got the red one too, so in total, I bought three belts in Florence for €9 (the white one I got was also €3). So I didn’t buy expensive shoes while I was in Italy – I bought cheap market belts. :) But I’m much more content with that than with shoes that cost way more than they should. Though rain had been threatening Tuesday and Wednesday, the only time it actually rained my whole week in Italy was on my walk back to the hostel after Palazzo Pitti. It was amazing how many umbrella sellers there suddenly were everywhere – the Florentine types are very attuned to the needs of tourists. I then went back to the hostel, and met up with some of my roommates to go out to dinner. It was quite refreshing not to have to eat dinner by myself for a night. The only part I didn’t like about traveling alone was the lonely dinners. Of course, I left Florence on Thursday, so I didn’t get to hang out with them any more after that, but that dinner was fun.

Again, Thursday was my last day in Florence. After a leisurely morning and after checking out, I made my way to the loggia again, to go see the Boboli Gardens back by Palazzo Pitti. On my way, I decided I wanted to see the inside of Palazzo Vecchio (museum #7) after all. And, because March 8th is Women’s Day in Italy, I got in for free. Yipee! I walked around the palace, met a French tourist and could practice a little French with her, and then looked around the bookstore, where she kept asking me my opinion of the postcards she couldn’t decide between. It was cute. I decided to catch Santa Croce (church #7) before lunch, and ran into the same three ladies I had met in Palazzo Pitti on Wednesday. Santa Croce was amazing – it’s the second biggest church in Florence (the cathedral’s the biggest), but it was much prettier than the cathedral. Pictures without flash were allowed, so I was able to get pictures of all the famous people who are buried in this church – Galileo, Dante, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli are the big ones. I then wandered through the Museum of the Works of Santa Croce (museum #8), which had some nice works. I decided to splurge a little for my last meal in Florence, and ate at the restaurant in Piazza della Signoria, so I could admire the loggia for a good long time. And, since Thursday was a beautiful day, it was very nice to eat outside. After lunch, I went and walked through the Boboli Gardens (also free for Women’s Day), where I saw some very nice views both of the city of Florence and the Tuscan countryside. And then, suddenly, after I saw the important sites in the garden, I decided I was done with Florence, and ready to do nothing until I caught my train to Milan. So I just went back to the hostel, played around on the internet, and then caught my train to Milan. (Note: The only time I ate McDonald’s this whole week was dinner Thursday night, as there was a McDonald’s at the train station, and I wasn’t sure how else I would get dinner as my train was over dinner time. Otherwise, I stuck to scrumptious Italian food.) After arriving in Milan, I met my friend Meilan, whom I stayed with Thursday and Friday nights. (Hooray for college friends and free accommodations!) It was pretty late by the time I got to her apartment, though, so after a little gelato, we just went to bed.

My Friday in Milan felt very different than my days in Florence. Whereas in Florence I was surrounded by art everywhere I turned, Milan is much more of a city. Meilan described it as New York City, just in Italy, and I think it’s a pretty good description. The streets are bigger, and the feel of the city is much less tourist centered and more business centered. After another leisurely start, Meilan and I took a little walk through the garden near her apartment and past La Scala and the Duomo, and then took the metro for a bit. I got off to check out the Church of Santa Maria della Grazie, where da Vinci’s Last Supper is, but sadly all the reservations were sold out for the weekend. (I would’ve made a reservation, had I remembered the Last Supper was in Milan. Somehow I thought it was in Rome… So much for my knowledge of Italy.) But, I walked around the church in any case (church #8), and thought it was cute. Nothing that really stood out, just cute. I then walked back to the Duomo (church #9) and took a slow, relaxing walk through the church. Milan’s cathedral is definitely up there with my favorite churches I visited last week. Its style of architecture is much more similar to the ornate style of the French gothic, which I thought was interesting. But somehow, this cathedral had a very calming effect on me, and I felt much better after having walked through it. I then met Meilan at her school’s center, and after taking care of some internet things, we walked through Castle Sforzesco, and then I went back to La Scala, one of the most famous opera houses in the world, to see if there was a chance of getting a look inside. Fortunately, if you bought a ticket to the museum, you could go into the lobby and see the inside of the theatre – sort of. The boxes were kind of in a weird spot, and I was behind a big piece of glass, but I did get to see inside. Since I had already paid for it, I decided to wander through the museum (museum #9). It mostly had paintings of famous people who had performed at La Scala, old costumes (those were fun), and various other La Scala paraphernalia. After the museum, I still had a little time to kill before I was going to meet up with Meilan again (she’s already been to a performance at La Scala, so she didn’t feel the need to pay money to get into the museum), so I walked over to the fashion district of Meilan to do some widow shopping. And believe me, window shopping is all I could do at Armani, Valentino, or any of the shops in that area. But, it was fun to wander. On my way back to my meeting spot with Meilan, I got my third gelato for Friday – that was my worst gelato day. But boy, was it good… Meilan and I met up with some of her other friends, and we went to this mountain in Milan that’s composed of WWII rubble, but has since grown over with grass. It’s the highest point in the city, but sadly, we got a little behind on time, and got to the top too late to truly catch the sunset. After we caught our breath, we decided we were hungry and it was time for dinner. Meilan and I went to a concert after our scrumptious, filling meal of yummy Italian food, which we were able to get free tickets to through her program. It was the performance of somebody’s Requiem (we missed the programs), and it was a very good concert. It was also really fun to go to a concert with a fellow music buddy, and we could talk music talk afterwards. Both the orchestra and the choir performed well, though the timpanist had a few habits (like conducting himself with his timpani mallets every time before came in) that he could afford to loose. We both enjoyed it, though. Then, it was time to repack all the things I managed to accumulate, and get ready to leave Milan the next day. I had been planning on spending Friday and Saturday with Meilan, but she ended up having a class trip (to Florence, actually) on Saturday, so I decided to check out Siena, which I had heard good things about.

Saturday morning, I got up pretty early to take the earliest train to Florence and thence to Siena. Unfortunately, it was the expensive train where you could only ride 1st class. Of course, that meant I got free drinks and snacks, which was nice. And I sat near a nice man, who even though I spoke no Italian, gladly helped me get my ridiculously heavy back up to the storage rack, and got it back down for me when we arrived in Florence. The unforeseen effects of buying two museum guides, I suppose. I arrived in Siena around noon, and managed to find my hostel (it was way outside the city, but it was cheap, so that’s good). I checked in, dropped my stuff off, and went back to enjoy my afternoon in Siena. This city, actually, perhaps was my favorite city I visited. It’s straight out of the Middle Ages – it has retained all the architecture of that period, and the city is still surrounded by defensive walls. It’s amazingly cute, though since Siena is built on three hills, there was a lot of walking up and down (good thing for me – work off all that Italian gelato.) Everywhere I went, I saw another building I liked, or turned down another street lined with stone buildings on both sides. Piazza della Campo is the main center of the city, and it’s just a huge open expanse of stone, with the Town Hall at the bottom of the slope, and one of the many palaces at the top. The other interesting fact was seeing all these modern stores in the clearly Middle-Aged buildings. Another interesting piece of information about Siena. The city is divided into Thirds, with each Third comprising of five or six districts. Most districts are named after an animal, and each has its own flag. The big event every year in Siena is the Palio of the Districts, where ten of the seventeen districts compete in the horse race that is the main focus of the festival, after the due pomp and circumstance of the festival is completed. I love the names of the districts – some of my favorites include the Snail District, the Imperial Giraffe District, and the Noble Caterpillar District. There is also a Tortoise District, (no penguin district, though), so of course I had to buy a scarf to declare my support for the Tortoise District. Said scarf is now decorating the couch in my room. I wandered all over Siena in the course of my afternoon – the city isn’t very big. I went through the Porta Romana (the gate that leads to Rome), walked through the Baptistery and Duomo of Siena (church #10), went to the Branda Fountain (where I saw three people playing old-style drums of some sort at the foot of the fountain – it could’ve been a father and his two sons), and after catching some other pretty buildings on my way, ended up at Fortezza Medicea. This fort provided an amazing view of the cityscape of Siena. As I was walking around the fort, I noticed a pretty fountain on one side, which was on the complete opposite side from the entrance/exit. I ended up making a full circle of the fort, just so I could get a picture of the pretty fountain, but I think it was worth it. And, I had the time, and there weren’t any schedules to worry about, so no worries. After the fort, I found my way back to a bus and back my hostel. I could get in to my room now (the hostel was actually closed when I had arrived earlier, though they were open enough for me to pay for my room), and I talked to the man to work out my train schedule for getting back to Pisa to fly to back to France on Sunday. I dropped all my things off, and then decided that since it was a clear night, I wanted to watch the sunset. When I asked the man at the front desk though, he got a little confused. He finally told me about a good place inside the city, but the sun would’ve been long set by the time I could get back into the city. Finally, though, I suggested the emergency staircase I had seen, and so he went up and opened the balcony for me so I could get my pictures of the Italian sunset. I had tried to see the sun set behind Ponte Vecchio one night in Florence, but it was too cloudy. My last night in Italy, though, was perfect. Even if I couldn’t sit there and watch the whole sunset, I could see enough of it, and I could take pictures. It was quite nice. My day in Siena was pretty much done after that – my last dinner was yet again yummy Italian food, even if the people in the restaurant weren’t too keen on serving me. (I actually encountered that a lot in Italy – no matter how many times I said “grazie” and at least tried to say a little Italian, I still felt like that annoying tourist they didn’t want to serve.) I decided I liked Siena too much to let that get me down, though, so I concentrated on how much fun I had had in city that afternoon instead.

Sunday was pretty much a travel day. I trained it from Siena to Pisa, and had two hours in Pisa to see the Leaning Tower, take lots of pictures, walk by the Baptistery, and go into the Duomo for a little bit. I’m not going to count that as a church visited, though, because they were having mass when I went in, so I didn’t have the chance to walk to around. After one final gelato, I made my way back to the train station to pick up my bag, and get to the airport for my plane. At around 3:30, we took off to head back to Baden-Karlsruhe. I decided I wasn’t done being touristy, so I took pictures of the city of Pisa and of the Alps from the air. If you zoom in to the city pictures, the leaningness of the Tower really does stick out. It’s pretty cool. Once I got on the Strasbourg bus, I ran into some fellow Syracuse students, and so had people to chat with on the ride home. That was another strange thing I realized, actually. Coming back to Strasbourg really did feel like coming home, in a sense. It was kind of cool. And I also realized that though I REALLY enjoyed my week in Italy, I was ready to get back to “life as normal,” and not be traveling anymore. Once I got home, I chatted with my host family some, went out to dinner with a friend (we spoke French for the whole dinner – it was great), unpacked, and went to bed. After a very busy week of trying to get as much of Italy in as I could, I was exhausted.

When I left Strasbourg on the 4th, I was a little bent out of shape about traveling alone. I had really hoped to travel with friends from the program over break, but things didn’t quite work out that way. In the end, however, I think traveling alone was a good idea. I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, could socialize as much or as little as I felt like, and got a break from the Syracuse students, which I think I needed. It was really a breath of fresh air, and was wonderful. Besides, it was easier to visit Meilan and Lilly being by myself, and I could just decide to go to Siena Saturday and didn’t have to worry about other people’s wishes. I loved Italy… Such a beautiful country, so many things to see and appreciate – I don’t think I will ever be bored any time I’m in Italy. However, should I ever visit these cities again, I will be sure to make reservations ahead of time for the Last Supper, buy a ticket for a performance in La Scala months ahead of time, and come in the summer when I can see the Palio of the Districts in Siena. Had I not traveled to those cities, though, I never would have known of all these other things I want to do, someday when I have money. But wait, I’m going to be a musician… Well, hopefully I’ll at least have enough money to make one more trip to Italy someday. :)

(Pictures will come later.
Final counts: Churches: 10 Museums: 9 Impressive, don’t you think?)

Oh, and some fun news from home. Yesterday was my sister Pam's birthday, so Happy Birthday, Pammy!!! And today, my sister Beth finds out where she'll be matched for her residency, as this is her last year of medical school. Good luck to Beth!