The streets of Florence.

There are always many people out and about Florence, walking, talking getting lunch or gelato. This is the square right next to the Duomo that I walk through everyday on my way to class.

Many people in Florence dress nice, all the time. This man looks like he is on his way to work. In the background there is a souvenir stand selling bags, and toys and other trinkets. There are people with small stands set up like this everywhere all over the city. You can barter for an item you want...There aren't always price tags on items and even if there are you can still ask for a lower price, sometimes they will sell you items for less than the price tag if you are stubborn enough. It is kind of like a game. I usually buy things in stores, but I do often stop to look at items that the street vendors are selling.

This is the Piazza Della Repubblica, it used to be the old Roman forum, or government center, during the time when the Romans controlled Florence about 1,500 years ago. I walk under this arch on my way to class. A Piazza is a square or open space where there are usually resturants and shops and sometimes large fairs are held here.

One thing I really like about walking around Florence is seeing many different buildings and big old wooden doors, like this one. This is the door to an apartment building. I wish my front door looked like this!

Viareggio Carnevale! Sunday February 7th 2010

This is a picture of one of the parade floats. The flowers and butterflies all moved. There is also a man in the middle of the float being the center part of the white butterfly, can you see him?

This is a family that dressed up as skunks! The baby skunk was about 2 years old and kept throwing confetti at us.

This is my housemate, Paige, who was dressed up as Sandy from Greese. She is modeling all of the confetti that was just thrown on her, again. People also sprayed us with silly string and shaving cream-like foam.

Here we are! These are my housemates (the other students staying with this one family) and our host father, Paolo. From left to right we have Paige, Lyndsey, Sara, Me, and Maggie. It is fun having many people living in one house because I never get lonely and it makes family outings much more fun!

So many places were selling these masks! Everywhere! There were big masks that could cover your whole face and little masks that just covered your eyes. Masks are typical of Carnevale season.

Carnevale in Viareggio, Italy

I was able to go up on a ferris wheel to get the picture of the whole street. Can you see the ocean in the background?

These are some pictures from my trip with my host Family to a beach town called Viareggio, which is about an hour West of Florence. There were many people there and it reminded me a little of The Keene Pumpkin Festival with all of the costumes and yummy food! But then there were these amazing parade floats! I have never seen such impressive floats before. They all had moving parts, music playing and people dancing on them! It was such a fun day! There were also many people dressed up like this cutie who was wearing some fuzzy costume. It was fun to see many families dressed alike, I saw a family of bees, a skunk family, ladybugs, dalmatians and many more costumes, but unlike Halloween these costumes weren't scary, mostly cute and funny. Our whole family dressed up. I was a Renaissance lady, my host father, Paolo, was a clown, my 12 year-old host sister, Catarina, was a disco dancer, and my 8 year-old host sister Martina was a Spanish dancer. The other students who lived in the house dressed up as Michael Jackson, Sandy from Greese, Tinkerbell, and a little girl. We had so much fun!

The Duomo

This is a picture of the Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore (or as we call it "The Duomo") the biggest church in Florence. The Duomo took 170 years to build!!! The dome of the cathedral is the biggest brick dome ever built and was the largest dome in the world until modern times. The whole building is covered in marble and statues. I walk by the Duomo everyday on my way to class and sometimes I sit on the steps in front of it and eat my lunch. I wish that a picture could do this building justice, but you will all just have to come see it for yourselves someday.

Gelato!

These pictures were taken when our host father, Paolo, brought us to get Gelato (ice cream) after dinner at the Piazzale Michelangelo. Gelato comes in many different flavors and there are little gelato shops everywhere in Florence. I love Gelato! The top picture is of me, Paolo, and some of the other students staying at the same house. Can you find me?

Fiesole

The picture to the left is of a little church at the very top of the hill. Inside the church there are all these artifacts from China and Egypt brought back by the Fiesole missionaries.The picture on the right is a view of the town of Fiesole. We heard the bell ringing all throughout the town and it was so pretty.

Fiesole

This is me in the town of Fiesole, which is a hillside town overlooking Florence. I came here with my roommate Katie and her two friends. We had to walk up this really steep hill but we got to see an amazing view of the city so it was worth it! We ate at this cozy little restaurant and then we climbed back up the hill to try and catch the sunset, we almost made it. We had to take a half hour bus ride to get here and it was supposed to cost us 2 Euro but all the ticket shops were closed because it was Sunday so we didn't have to pay! Italy is such a beautiful place.

This is the view from my bedroom window. I stepped out onto the balcony to take this picture. It is about 36 degrees Fahrenheit today.