Cortona

What a week! School flew by as usual…and Kristen, Hannah, and I signed up for dance club. So after school on Tuesday we took salsa and Wednesday night we took belly dancing. Salsa was so fun! I hope I continue to go to salsa clubs and such throughout my life! And belly dancing was definitely a new experience hahha. None of us had a clue what we were doing, but it was fun to try. Friday girls and I decided to stay in our own little city rather than travel. So Maddie, Kristen, and Hannah went to a modern museum and Marci and I window shopped and searched different parts of Florence that we hadn’t had a chance to see.

Most exciting about Friday was that Adam came!!! It was the craziest thing! The whole night I just kept saying “I can’t believe this is real.” Adam is studying in Perugia so it was like an hour and a half train ride to Florence! The whole night seemed like any other night we were hanging out in Idaho or California except the scenery was a little different hahha. So I showed him around Florence and we had gelato, these waffle things with nutella on them that they sell at all the gelato stands (nutella is everywhere here!), and then we finished the night up by having dinner down the street from my apartment. I love all of the Italian family restaurants around here….sooo delicious! And after we got done having the normal Italian meal it was already 10:30 or so (most people don’t eat dinner until about 9 o’clock) so my roommies helped me get Adam a hostel and then we called it a night. Sha Sha it’s probably the same hostel you’ll stay in because Adam said it’s the best he’s ever been in. So it’s safe and right down the street. I think you will like it!

Then Saturday morning at a bright and early 7 am Adam and I went to one of the corner coffee shops and had our first real Italian, stand at the bar, coffee. The way Italians and apparently a lot of Europeans have coffee, is standing at the bar where the barista makes it. So I got a latte, which was amazing (but I still added sugar haha) and Adam got Italian hot chocolate (ill explain that one later). So Adam’s train left at 8:30 and the girls and I left at 9:30 for CORTONA. Ahh Amazing Cortona. Hahah the girls and I are now in love with Cortona, if it’s possible to be in love with a city. And we are all convinced that we’re going to buy a small place together for vacationing someday. We’ll see ;)

Anyway, our original plan was to spend a couple of hours in Cortona and a couple in Assisi. But when we got to Cortona we stayed in Cortona haha. Cortona is a really small village up on a hill. It’s the place where Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed…so that was definitely incentive for going! When we first got there we walked to one of the local restaurants, according to Rick Steve’s it’s one of the best and has the most locals haha. After that we just wandered around the city. First we went to a store that had tons of leather bags. They were so cute and Hannah ended up buying one. The cutest thing was that one of the owners walked around the corner while we were all browsing, and randomly she asked if we were studying abroad. We said yes we were all from the U.S. and we were studying in Florence. She kind of laughed and then said that she was originally from Britain and decided to study abroad in Florence when she was in college as well. Only she ended up falling in love with an Italian man and moving to Cortona! The girls and I just listened with these big smiles on our faces. It was seriously the sweetest story J
Anyway, when we were leaving I asked the lady where the best bakery was (because the whole town smelled amazing) and the girls and I couldn’t decide where to go. So she sent us down a random street to this place called Cocoa. And I can honestly say that it was THE BEST bakery I have every been to. I was in chocolate heaven. Kristen, Hannah, and I all had the special Italian hot chocolate which is totally to die for. It’s so thick and chocolaty that I swear they just melt chocolate in a cup! Anyway, we all tried different truffles and such from the case as well…I think we took the most pictures there because we were all like glowing and couldn’t stop laughing. Amazing!

And after that we just continued our wandering for the rest of the day. We hiked up to a church at the top of the hill. It had a mummified body in it which was a little weird. Then just went into a bunch of the little shops, saw some wild sunflowers, ate grapes from a huge grape tree…..i don’t even know what else, but it was so beautiful. Everyone in the town was sooo laid back and everything was so beautiful. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to really live there. Oh and the girls and I got back at about 9 p.m. and decided to put on our jammies and watch Under the Tuscan Sun. We figured it was appropriate hahah. Kristen and I also made a gelato run that night…but that’s nothing out of the ordinary ;)

Sunday was a sleep in, homework, and grocery day. Which basically sums up the whole day except for church last night. Hannah, Kristen, and I decided to try out a different church that we’d heard about. It was a night service geared more towards youth. The story behind the church was that an American man started a service for study abroad students in his house, and when he moved a Swedish couple who hardly speaks English took over. It was the sweetest story and they were such a cute couple. There were about 25 people in the service and it was mainly worship music which I absolutely loved. Afterwards everyone stayed to talk and have juice and cookies. So the girls and I made some new friends and I think we’re going to game night at one of the young couples houses on Wednesday. Anyway, that was my weekend and now im back to school! I’ve had a ton of reading for school this week, I think I’ve already done about 4 hours….no good haha. But I’m meeting mom and dad in Rome on Thursday and I can’t even wait!!! yay!

K I hope life is treating everyone well J
And I’ll write again soon!

p.s. This is really random, but Kristen is writing a blog for Athena the program we are studying abroad through, and Marci and I are on the homepage! Kristen writes and sends in pictures and apparently they like a picture of Marci and I….so we’re on the front page. It’s athenaabroad.com if anyone wants to look!