San Gimignano

This Saturday we took a little day trip up to San Gimignano, a hillside town known for its towers.  The view from the city was stunning.  See photos:

It's a pretty small city, not much to do there, and filled with tourists, but very beautiful nonetheless.

We went to a park with a piazzetta where a lady was playing Tuscan folk songs on her guitar and then found some stairs that led up to a tower with an incredible view:

This is our friend Martin, who took the above photo for us.  He's from Argentina and has been traveling all over Italy and Europe.  He was cute--I think Ashley fell in love.  Really nice guy too.  One of my favorite things about living in Italy has been meeting people from all over the world, people that are all united by one thing: their love for Italy.

The happy couple:

We ate lunch in the piazza while listening to some more street musicians.  This group was exceptionally great, those black things they are are playing sounded like steel drums.  Hippie street-performers are great.

Last but not least, there was a gelateria in the piazza that boldly announced that it made the best gelato in the world.  We were skeptical at first--I mean just how much creamier and tastier and delicious can you really get?  But after one bite we were convinced.  Their cinnamon and coconut flavors are now my favorites.

I definitely back-up this place as World Champion.

Italians and their soccer

I love this country.

Roger

It kills me to know that right now my man, Roger Federer, is playing in Rome--only three hours away from my city.  I wish so badly I could go down and see him play, but it looks like instead I will spent the next several days watching on TV.

(Maybe I will run away to Paris in a few weeks and see him in the French Open...)

Firenze

Saturday we took a day trip up to Florence, only an hour from Siena by bus.  Florence is probably my favorite city in Italy, right up there with Rome.  It's a lot bigger than Siena, where I'm living, and there are so many beautiful palaces, churches, and piazzas; not to mention open markets, gelaterias, and shops (from D&G to stationary).  There are so many museums to visit and tours to take, but my favorite thing to do in Florence is just walk around.  You can't go very far until you run into a little treasure.

The first thing we did when we arrived was climb the bell tower of the cathedral.  The views were incredible, it was hard to choose just a few photos to upload here.  After the tower, we went up to see Brunelleschi's Ospedale degli Innocenti, and then to the markets around San Lorenzo. 

For lunch we stopped at an amazing little hole-in-the-wall called "I Fratellini," a little wine and panini bar near Piazza della Signoria.  I ate what was probably the best panino I've had yet. As soon as we all finished ours we wanted to head back and get another one.  But instead we got some gelato...

After lunch, some of the girls in our group went to the Uffizi Museum (I had some issues buying tickets online, but will definitely go with my parents when then come at the end of July), so me and Limher took a 2.5 hour walk around the city, finding some gems, but failing to find a bookstore I'd seen earlier--Limher was such a sport for letting me drag us around the same area for an hour trying to find it.

By early evening we were dead tired, so we took one last stroll along the Arno with the view of the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), and slept on the bus ride home.

It was a great day, and I can't wait to come back (very soon).

Rain

First Week of Church

This morning we woke up early and Nonna drove us to church.  The branch here is tiny--we nearly doubled the size of it.  But the people here are so sweet and nice.  It was a lot of fun, and really neat to see what it is like being a Mormon in such a predominately Catholic European country.  Hearing members bear their testimonies in Italian (well, everything was in Italian) was really special and the Spirit is really strong here.

After church we explored the city a bit more--I keep finding so many more beautiful places.  We even ran into a little parade.  This place is amazing.

Monteriggioni

This weekend we took a little trip to Monteriggioni--a tiny, tiny town  less than ten minutes from where we live.  It was gorgeous.  There's not much to do there except relax in the micro-piazza and take in the scenery. The views of Tuscany from the city were stunning.  Everything is so green and lush here.  

On our way to the castletown

We asked a man to take this photo of us--he turned out to be the mayor of Monteriggioni!

In the piazza

Beautiful.