Italia! (Also, sometimes I fail at tourism).

During our week between classes, three of my girlfriends and I went to Rome and Florence for a few days. We were woefully underprepared (I knew how to say "hello," "goodbye," and someone tried to teach me "touch me again and I'm calling the police," but I forgot that one...), but we had such a wonderful, wonderful time. As someone who sometimes travels alone, I forget how enjoyable it can be to have easygoing, adventurous traveling companions. Everything is more fun with them. 

I thought I uploaded all of my photos, but I can only find my Firenze photos and a few of my Roma pictures, so I'll include the others (and hopefully, my video of the Pope's address on Sunday if I can upload it!) later. 

Sometimes I feel like I am a really bad tourist. I don't always go to the right museums, or research anything correctly, or even learn basic phrases... sometimes instead of taking pictures or going to yet another cathedral, I just sit on a bench in a plaza and watch people pass for two hours. Or I eat more pizza. 

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Part of Rome's ancient city. 

 The Pantheon in Florence. 

A view of Florence from one of its many beautiful bridges. Some of them are from the 14th century. (Can you imagine!?!? No, no I cannot).

The Duomo in Florence. Rome and Florence have an overwhelming amount of churches and cathedrals, and they do sort of blend together after a while. Except this one. I have never seen anything like this- it was by far my favorite piece of architecture we saw. Especially meaningful as well, after studying its history and the formation of the baptistry adjacent to it. There is something so rewarding about seeing the things I've done research on, papers I've presented even, in person for the first time. 

I do not want to admit the amount of food I consumed in Italy, mostly because it would feed a Sri Lankan family of eight for a month, but food in Italy is on another level entirely. This dish in particular was a calzone that was larger than the size of my head. No joke. Please note the Coca Light next to it for scale. Obviously, I did my best to finish it all, but even I was unable to complete such a feat. 

As wonderful as Italy was, I was excited to come home to Granada. I love it here, I do. I am the happiest I've been in a while. But I am missing my beautiful family and especially my best friend. I wish I could just spend an afternoon sipping tea on the couch and just talking about everything the way only we can, or tooling around the thrift stores. 

I love you. And I'm going to skype you right now!