Everyone!

Ana made us an ocean-themed feast tonight... pasta with mussels, then more mussels, then shrimp with mussels, then salad, then fruit, then cake. Then I rolled myself back to my room, and here I am at the computer. Oof.

It's getting late, and I'm a little tired from my food coma going on, but I'm heading out on a big adventure tomorrow and I know that I need to write an email before that happens, so here I am! Back in action.

So what big adventure?? I'm finally exiting the country. Woo! First time since I've gotten here. Where is this adventure taking me? Up to AUSTRIA. I'm going to go run around in the Sound of Music hills! Anyway, my friend Logan is renting a car, and I'll be navigating, and well... we'll see if we can keep us and the other passengers intact. Fingers crossed. That'll be next week's email. Get pumped.

So there are a few things to discuss today. I think I last left off at Mafia and pasta. (Still haven't forgotten that pasta, tutti... it was the best ever. If I could give a trophy to a pasta... I would give a trophy to a pasta).

Last Friday I went to San Gimignano. I woke up in the morning, realized I had absolutely nothing to do that day, so I went to the cafe I usually go to and asked Giuseppe and Sandra where they'd go if they had a free day. They wrote San Gimignano down on a napkin for me, and so I hopped on a bus to San Gimignano! I went all by my lil' old self... I needed some Audra time... and San Gimignano is like this:

I got off the bus and climbed through a porthole/gateway/arch to the town, and walked steadily up. If you need to know anything about San Gimignano, it is that it is up. But that is what makes it so beautiful. I go up up up, and finally I find a castle, I go into its courtyard, and a harpist starts playing. A harpist! In a castle courtyard! So I find a bench, I sit down on it, and I enjoy the free concert. You know how when people tell you to relax, they tell you to go to a 'happy place'? Well I made that one of my happy places... the weather was warm, there were trees with flowers, and it was my first San Gimignano experience.

It was good that it was my first impression because the rest was just ok. Sorry to let you down. Overall, I have to say that San Gimignano had the best views I have ever seen of Tuscany and Chianti, but the people??! They were not the friendliest. It felt like everyone was bitter that there were people around. I was trying to talk to the lady at lunch (because I was the only one there, I was trying to cover up the Celine Dion playing in the background, and if I didn't talk she would have just been watching me eat...), and she just seemed annoyed. I went to go find dessert so I could meet someone nicer, but the lady seemed bothered that all I wanted was dessert! Nobody seemed up for talking. If I went into a place and didn't buy anything (which was often, because stuff's expensive!), they turned off their smiles. Maybe it's just me. But it was just so contrary to every other place I've been in Italy so far that I was surprised.

But I'm not writing San Gimignano off as an unfriendly place just yet. It's really, really beautiful, and I can't imagine people who are surrounded by that all of the time to all be unfriendly. So I think I just met the wrong people.

Saturday I woke up and went with my friend Gerd-Helen to Assisi. To see what we could see-see. Hah haha. Sorry.. there were a lot of Assisi jokes. I'll tell you what I saw-saw.

First of all, Assisi was uphill too. Maybe even more than San Gimignano. And everyone wanted to talk to us! We even had one man show us a photo album of all of the women he's been with in his lifetime. He said he has 20 photo albums... all full. Yep. We went to a beer tasting, and we ate free sausage to go with it. We talked to the woman who gave us coffee, and the man who sold us wine, and everyone wanted to know where we were from and why we know Italian.

If you ever, ever go to Italy, though... please make it on your list to go to the Basilica of St. Francis. It will be your favorite church. Most of the churches I've been to so far have been beautiful on the outside, but huge, empty, and imposing on the inside as if to say "sit down, shut up, God is coming." But when you walk through this Basilica for St. Francis of Assisi, you start to feel different. People go there as a tourist attraction, yes, but so many people treat it as kind of a Mecca. It's a place that they have the need to go to, because they need to pray for someone or theirselves.. just because they have to be there in some way. Gerd-Helen and I went down to the tomb, and the feeling of emotion down there was so strong I felt like crying but for no reason. There were photographs placed all around the tomb, there were monks, there were people singing. Gerd-Helen and I walked through pretty much in silence, and even though she isn't even Catholic, when we walked back outside, she said Whoa.. did you feel that? It was incredible. Go to Assisi. Go to the Basilica of St. Francis.

Otherwise, Assisi was walking uphill, eating a really good bread with walnuts and pecorino, avoiding the rain that happened in Florence all day, and just enjoying the town. It might be one of my favorite towns that I've been to here.

This week I've had classes.. yes, I go to class! And guess what?? Big news! Are you ready???

I learned how to bake BREAD!!!

I'm so excited! It's called schiacciata (kind of like foccaccia), and they bake it for panini... but it's also good as is. It's kind of like a gateway bread. If you know how to make it, you can make panini, pizza, whatever you want. So I'm a baker, now. I can't wait until I get home and have an oven to use... you're all getting bread.

Registered for fall semester this week... 3 geography classes, 2 Newhouse classes, 1 Italian, and AEROBIC DANCE!!! Yup, it's one credit!

Other things... I've been trying to check some landmarks off my list. Uffizi? Check. Palazzo Pitti? Check.

It's good because I can hop on other people's tours and learn information. You have to be sneaky and look like you're observing something else, but it's a fun way to learn. And free!

Uffizi felt like cowhearding. I haven't been anywhere so crowded in such a long time! This is what I think about the Uffizi... it's like tasting wine. The first few wines, you think 'yes, a bit of cherry' or 'hmm.. I sense an earthiness' or whatever you say when you drink wine. But by the 7th or 8th wine you just think 'yup, that's good.' Like that, the first few rooms I was really trying hard with, but by the end I was thinking.. 'Well that isn't how a face really looks', and 'Ahh! Everybody's naked!!!" (just kidding). The Uffizi is massive. Give it a few visits if you want to give the whole thing your full attention.

You must think I'm uncultured. But it's a big museum, and honestly? Once you've seen a few Rennaissance paintings, you get it.

But! Before I move on... the Uffizi bathroom is the BEST one I've ever been in. It's at the end of a cave, the stalls are big, and everything is made out of stone. It's incredible. It's clean. I get in for free with my student card, so I might just go back for the bathroom if I need one in a hurry one day.

Today I went to Palazzo Pitti. I liked it much more than the Uffizi. Is that a fair comparison? It probably shows how uneducated I am about art and history. But it was a palace, that also had art! So I saw more art, but at the same time, I could pretend I was a princess in a palace if I wanted to. I loved it. It was good for imagination purposes.. to imagine which room the duke played billiards in and which room the Queen slept in, and so on. There was also a clothing museum, a silver museum, and a modern art museum (but don't be fooled... "modern" = "less old" in this case).

That was a long email. Next time I won't write on a full stomach!

Everyone wish my sister a happy birthday.. it was yesterday.

I only have 1 month left! The weather is getting warmer (and the tourists are getting more frequent...! But I guess I kind of am one, so..)

I hope you're all doing great! Happy April.
Questions? Comments? Hit the reply button.
Till next time,
Love you!
Aud