epic time on an epic day

A few years ago when I realized that there would be an 11-11-11 day, I never in my wildest dream thought I would be in Italy when that happened. but it was so monumental I took a picture of it on my watch, even though I was in a church that didn't allow pictures. yes I got yelled at for this picture but no, I didn't mind.

Ponte Vecchio in Florence

so we spent the "epic" day in Florence. (it seems like all the important days are spent in Florence: my birthday, November 11th...) it was a gorgeous day! and I couldn't believe some of the amazing pictures I got, especially of the Ponte Vecchio.

cleaning the ground at a church

we ended up going to a few churches before we were set free to wander the streets of Florence. it was really cool in the Dominican church we went in because there was so much to see! and so much to see outside in the cloisters. there

it's in Latin! and I could almost read it

were two cloisters right next to each other, which seemed a little

I'm going to miss this amazing sky

abnormal to me, but they were both really pretty, and had lots of really green grass to look at, and maybe even frolic through.... ok, so I didn't frolic through the grass, but I took cool pictures of the flowers in the gardens and the towers surrounding the cloisters. then we wanted to catch up with the rest of the group who had not waited for Deidra and I as we explored the cloisters.

monks sure did know how to live!

 I had heard the many plans of all the girls in our group, so although they didn't wait for us, we found them pretty easily. they all wanted to shop, which is understandable... kind of. they often shop at H and M, which is a cool store, but we have those in the States, and I want to buy my stuff from somewhere cool and original if I'm going to get something from Italy. (I don't count my skinny jeans in that, because I wanted to buy some, and I would have bought them even in the States. I'm not so sure I would have bought a leather jacket or boots in the States if I was just randomly shopping)

now this is what I imagine cloisters to be like

oh, but that segways into my next topic! I bought a leather jacket. a pretty legit leather jacket at that, and for super cheap (in comparison to what the price tag said)

my new leather jacket!!!

 the guy who sold it to me gave me the student discount as well as a November discount because he told me he sells so few jackets without the tourists visiting in November. i was grateful! I've wanted a leather jacket for a while, but I wouldn't have been able to justify

in San Gimangiano we saw amazing utensiles

 to myself buying a jacket for so much. luckily I didn't have to!

I want a cute, tiny, old car to drive around!

every time there is vegetation in cracks is makes me laugh

"the idea" of Italy

I love fall colors. always

I found a cute road in Orvieto

the streets will never stop being quaint

I'm pretty sure those are sheep

Compo in the morning

that's where we hang out!

 Cecily lived in Orvieto for a semester while she was in Italy, and I wanted to go over there so bad because she had told me it was pretty. she was not wrong. it was gorgeous, and quaint, and such a peaceful city to go visit. way less tourists than Siena.

guess who went to a soccer game???

an Italian, soccer cheerleader: did an amazing job leading cheers

the coolest part of visiting Orvieto though, was when I went to lunch. I found a tiny family owned spot way off the road. I swear I saw a sign for it pointing the way, but when I went back later to try and find it, the sign was no longer there. but it was a restaurant with 3 2-person tables and 2 4-person tables. and that was how many people could fit in that restaurant. but anyways, it was not full when I got there, and it was near the end of lunch, so it didn't ever fill up. but I was quietly eating on my own, being way too shy to talk to her in Italian, and pretty sure she didn't speak english. when one of the owner's friends came in and started talking with her, I'm pretty sure they were talking about me, and how "cute" I was and how I probably spoke english, but at least definitely not Italian. I could understand the gist of what they were saying, but I dind't feel the urge or the need to join in, so I just listened and thought about the imperfetto, which we had just learned about in our italian class. imperfetto is hard, or at least knowing when to use it is hard, so i was trying to decide if I needed to use imperfetto or passato prossimo if I wanted to tell them anything. I couldn't figure it out, so I just didn't say anything. but the best part is still to come: at the end of the meal, when I finally figured out how to say I was completely finished, the owner came out and told me I only had to pay 10 euro for my meal. I know it cost more than that on the menu (at least 3 euro more) but I guess she just really liked me. it was awesome not having to pay as much as I originally thought I was going to have to!












































on sunday we went to a soccer game! it was the last one we could have gone to, and I think we waited so long because none of us really wanted to make the decision to skip church, if we had to, or whether soccer was an appropriate sunday activity to watch. I think finally those of us who went decided we wanted to see a game more than we cared about the fact that it was on a sunday. I am so glad we went! it was a LOT of fun.
first off, we couldn't find our seats, and a few of the people we asked where they were told us that the seating didn't really matter. so we just sat down in a random spot. it was the coolest spot to sit down at. we had 2 "cheerleaders" in front of us. but I mean cheerleaders as those who begin and lead the cheers that the crowd does. there was singing, there was chanting, there was drama, there was passion. everything that you would imagine a soccer game to be like, we saw it, and were a part of it! with Natalia there to translate the cheers, we began to pick up on a few of the good ones and cheer along with them. I think Natalia got even more into the goal that Siena got than some of the guys around us did. it was awasome. I have a lot of short videos that hopefully begin to come close to our experience, but I'll have to check them and see. I'll let you know if I put any up on facebook. :D
but we leave Siean in 6 hours and should probably get at least a little bit of sleep. it'll be a long time before I'll have a bed to call my own again, so I better live it up while I can.