Vienna!!!!

Okay, biiiig, long busy post today. I think the best way to do it is bullet point. I've been busy.

Thursday (last week): Packed for Florence and Vienna. Cleaned my room as well as the rest of the house, INCLUDING the bathroom. I think my parents would be proud.

Friday: AM - woke up tooooo early and lugged all of our stuff to the train station (about a 40 minute walk) boo. Arrived in Florence and got lost almost immediately. Our hotel was less than stellar. Get this -- to get to the 3rd floor, where we were, you had to take the elevator to the 1st and then walk up 2 flights of stairs. Go figure. But it was just somewhere to sleep, so it was fine. We saw a few sights -- Uffizi and something else. Then went shopping at the San Lorenzo market. HUGE leather, pashmina, etc... market. Amazing. I bought a lot of pashminas. Turned in early cause we were EXHAUSTED. BUT we got CNN on our TV. Yes.

Saturday: Got up, had breakfast, went on our "Dante's Florence" walk. We saw his old house, his church, another church, a really cool palazzo that would've been around in Dante's time, the Duomo, and the baptistry. We got to walk up the side of the Duomo to get to the top. Mom and Patti, we should do it. It was reallllly cool. Then we went to the Accademia and saw the David and got in trouble for taking illegal pictures. Oops. Then we had planned to go to Pisa the next day, but there was a huge train strike, so we didn't want to risk it. We went shopping some more and i bought some jeans and some leather boots. Yay! We all went out that night with Lisa's (one of the girls we're with) boyfriend and his friends. It was a blast. We went to an awesome two story club and met a group of American Army kids. They were hysterical. Got in super late.

Sunday: Shopped some more, went to the Palazzo Pizzi and the gardens. Beautiful. In the palazzo, they had some rooms left as they were originally. Sumtuous and amazing!!! Then we went to an AMAZING dinner. (Read: best dinner i have ever had) Mom -- got the name, we'll go when we go to Florence. I had an amazing Florentine bread and veggie soup with Steak Florentine and an amazing apple crisp dessert. Yum.

Monday: Went to Tuscany. We stopped at this town that was left as it was in the 1300s. Still walled, it's awesome. Monteriggioni. Then we got to the Banfi Vineyards. We took a tour and saw all the places where they make wine and everything and it was amazing. But here's the good part. We did a wine tasting/lunch thing. But it wasn't so much a tasting as we had a full glass of every wine they brought. Oh. My. God. It was so good!!!! I bought a bottle of Brunello and a bottle of the dessert wine we had. Couldn't resist. I have all the names of the specific wines written down, but i'll let you know later if you want. Then we got home and Chris (one of the guys) and I walked up to Piazzale Michelangelo to see an amazing view of Florence. It was good

Tuesday: Amanda and I got up early to catch our train to Milan. We were both going to Milan and then she was flying to Amsterdam to see her friend and I to Vienna. Well, we were not paying attention and almost got on a train to Rome! Oh how bad that would've been! But we got it fixed and ended up in Milan, she then in Amsterdam and me in Vienna. I arrived in Vienna and took the train here. Walked. Met a really cool Australian girl last night and we hung out. She is leaving today though, so I'm just planning to go into town and wander around. Should be fun.

Oh! I left my phone on the bus in Florence, so I don't have one. The bus driver found it and called our professor after I'd left Florence. I'll be fine, but just FYI.

Okay, I guess that's it! We have really cheap internet in the hostel I'm staying in, so I should probs update often this week!

Love love love love!

Miss you all!

Xoxo,

Ally