The Briefest Snapshot of a Wordy Person

Venice is every bit as gorgeous as the movies portray

I haven't written on here in a really long time, and I suppose you should at least know that I'm safe, if there is anyone reading this who is not family, or I don't know at all. But instead of dragging up sad memories of leaving Siena, I think I'll write about how blessed I was after the program ended, while I was traveling across Europe as such a daring traveler. the first thing I must say, is despite all the iffy parts of our travels, I have never felt more safe and watched over by my Heavenly Father in my life. Every day I woke up with thanks in my heart.

there's even interesting artwork around

Natalia was up to her normal activities

last day in Venice, and I visited the roof

The first thing we did, the first day we had free, was stay in Venice. we wanted to make sure we got to see all the really important things, and didn't think 3 days was really sufficient. so we went to the glass blowing island, saw amazing artwork both being created in the shops and just on the street, and just generally tried to enjoy each others company for the few more hours we would have with each other. we spent one more night in the hotel we had been in, and then started to say good bye to the last few people going home, while 6 of us stayed on to travel wherever we wanted to! (although we did have a plan before hand. not having one would have

the Verona Bed and Breakfast!

been the utmost of foolishness) we had decided we wanted to go see Verona, because we hadn't the chance to see it while we

Verona Christmas market

were actually studying in Italy. we had heard from our host families and other people in Sienna that December 1st is the day they officially turn on Christmas lights and begin thinking about celebrating the holidays. we were sad that we wouldn't get to see any lights turn on in Italy because we were going to be in Paris by the

best place to eat in Milan, hands down

first of December. luckily for us though, not everywhere follows the same strict 1st of December rule, because we got to see lights and even a few "Christmas markets" in Verona. They were probably going on in Milan as well, but we were so tired of carrying our luggage around the subways we just hung out near the train station for a few hours before we left Italy altogether. But it was cool seeing it in Verona because it was surrounded by the ancient, normal buildings of Verona, and had such an interesting feel, being both a more modernized Christmas thing, and surrounded by such ancient

our "cozy" train from Milan to Paris

buildings. that's the part about the markets that always amused me the most. that and the hot wine they would sell. I didn't even ever know wine was good warm, and they were selling it like hot chocolate, or something!
Milan was a pretty amazing city. we didn't realize that we could go into the Duomo for free, so Alli, Chelsea and I didn't make it into the church, but the few things we did see were pretty. just like the rest of Italy had been. by far the best place we went to though was some little shop called Luini, which sold Italian fast food: fried calzones. we were each going to only eat 1 calzone, but we all went back for seconds, and thought about how we could cash in on such a wonderful food in Provo, where it would be sure to be a hit.

biggest mall I've been in, in Europe, yet

Finally we got on our train to go to Paris! we had talked to an irish man earlier in the evening who had told us the train we were planning on taking was not the safest train. in fact, it was one of the more dangerous trains to

Rain and the Louvre: Paris in a nutshell

take, especially 4, pretty, "rich," American girls. Even the conductor told us to lock the doors to make sure no one came in to steal our stuff or hurt us during the night. but we made it to Paris without a hitch. that was when I began to really realize how well watched over and protected we were. and I was thankful for the love and prayers of all our families back home. Paris was extremely different from anything we ever experienced in Italy, but it was probably a

or maybe it's a baguette and the Eiffel Tower...

good thing we started our journey there. it was still foreign, but it was more similar to the United States than most of Italy is. we progressed as we traveled farther and farther away from Italy.