*Florence and Tuscany*

This past weekend we went to Florence and Tuscany!! We left early Saturday morning and got to Firenze around 11. We checked into our hostel, which was at a camping ground site. We stayed in yurts, which are smaller tents, with three beds in it. It wasn't too bad for the price, plus there was a great view of the city!! We took off and walked around the city some. We saw the Duermo and went to the markets. I got some pretty sweet masks :)

Saturday night we went out to a very nice restaurant called Acqua Al 2...we got there right as they were opening and were very lucky to get in without reservations!! Sunday morning half of our group went on a tour of Tuscana. We took a bus about an hour and a half to Seina, which was pretty cool. Then they took us to a very yummy restaurant. Then we went to another little town that I can't pronounce or spell so I call it La JimmyJohns :) It sounds somewhat similar!

After that town (which had the world's best gelato) we went to a wine tasting. Tuscany is known for their wine and now I know why!! The white wine was the best, and I would have bought some, except it would have been a pain to get home. We also tried olive oil and vinegar...so good :)

While we were sitting at the wine tasting, we got a call from the other group that had gone to Pisa after Florence and they told us that there had been a fire in the main terminal in Rome. Both of our trains home were supposed to go through Rome, but since there was a major fire, that couldn't happen any more!

We got back to Florence from our tour at 6:25. All the time boards said our trains were either cancelled or 100 minutes late. Merek all of a sudden said there was a train about to leave to Naples, so we take off running and get on the train that left at 6:30. Since a lot of other trains had been cancelled, the train we got on was packed and we didn't have reservations. We found random seats and prayed that we wouldn't get in too much trouble!

When the train person came around checking tickets, it ended up working out that our reservations for our other train worked, since it had been cancelled, so we didn't have to pay. We were all pretty nervous! That train left at 6:30 and was supposed to get to Naples at 9...including a stop in Rome. We got into Rome at 11 pm. Because of the fire, there was only one or two tracks open, so a lot of the time we were at a stand still just waiting...and waiting...and waiting. We were all sooo ancy. Once in Rome, we weren't even at the main terminal. We had to go to another smaller one.

We didn't leave Rome until 11:45 and got to Naples at 1 am. Since it was so late, there weren't any more trains going to Aversa, so our Project Director, Alex, had to come pick us up. I didn't get home until 2 am. I took a shower and went to sleep. I had to wake up at 8 to get to work on time. Everyone was SO exhausted yesterday at work.

Luckily we all got up on time yesterday, but today I wasn't in so much luck. I slept through my alarm and woke up at 8:55...I was supposed to be at work with kids at 9. I hopped out of bed, got dressed, brushed my teeth, and threw my contacts in. Yesterday one of the moms gave us two bicycles to use for the rest of the summer and just my luck, no one had taken the one that was in my apartment, so I hopped on and got to work at 9:15. So because of that, today was a little crazy too :) Hopefully the rest of the week goes better before I head to Milan, Pisa, and Cinque Terre!!

  A view of Florence!!

 I straightened my hair for the first time since April :)

 Duermo

 on a bridge in Firenze!!

 yummy food :) 

 one of the masks I bought!

 Siena

 Amazing bakery

 world's best gelato

overlooking La JimmyJohns :)

**Amalfi & Pompei**

This weekend was a lot of fun!! First, my friend from Iowa, Kristen, got here on Friday. I went to Aversa and picked her up at the train station. We came back to my apartment and she got to experience first hand our power going out. We went to Aversa Friday night to get some real Italian pizza!!

Saturday morning, Kristen, me, and two other girls from my group (Krystina and Allison) left to go to the Amalfi Coast!! It took awhile to get there, but once we did it was beautiful. We had to walk over a mile to the bus stop, take the bus to Aversa, take the train to Naples, take the metro to Sorrento, then take another bus to the coast which took an hour and a half alone. I got super motion sick...it was a lot of speeding up, slowing down, BRAKES!, turns, windy roads, and more BRAKES!

We checked into our hostel then went down to the beach for awhile. It was a rocky beach (Sicily still has the best beaches so far!!) then went shopping at the markets for awhile. We actually stayed in a town called Atrani, but it was really close to Amalfi, which is where the bus dropped us off and we went to the markets.

Saturday night we went out to eat and went to bed!! Sunday morning, we got up and had free (amazing!) breakfast at the hostel and Kristen and I took the bus back to Sorrento, then on to Pompei. I had been there before during the first weekend with the rest of my group, but this time we got a audio guided tour. SO helpful and SO much better!! I actually knew what I was looking at. I realized the last time I was there, we didn't even see half the city/ruins! It was so worth it to go back.

It took us awhile to get back home, but we finally made it!! We were soo tired and soo sweaty, dusty, and gross from Pompei and the trains. At the bus stop near my base, we bought a watermelon and peaches!! The watermelon was incredibly heavy to carry back the mile and a half, but it tastes super good so I think it was worth it. :)

Kristen will leave tomorrow (Tuesday) morning around the same time I go to work. She'll go back to Rome for a few days then fly back to the states on Friday morning! She hasn't been home since February :) It's been really fun having her stay here with me!

Today I had 12 kids...it's so frustrating not having a consistent number. Friday I had 4! Camp today was interesting to say the least though...all the kids were pretty riled up for some unknown reason! Hopefully tomorrow's better :) Florence this weekend!!

 the beach where we swam

 looking toward Atrani

 my new favorite food...Gnocci!!

 Amalfi

 Kristen and me 

 me at Pompei

 Kristen and me in front of a huge Amphitheater 

huge trees at Pompei

When in Rome...

We just got back from Rome!! It was sooooooo hot, but soo fun :) We left Saturday morning and went to the Vatican City first. I was blown away by the Sistine Chapel...AMAZING. St. Peter's Basilica, which is the largest church in the world, was unbelievable as well. We left around 3 and headed towards the Trevi Fountain.

It took us awhile to get there and find the place, but on the way we accidentally ran into the Pantheon, so that was cool :) At the fountain, we met up with a couple other girls in my group and 2 people from the Sicily group that we spent the weekend with last weekend. We then went to the white house of Rome and took pictures there.

After the government building, we were trying to find the Colosseum before it closed for the day, and all of a sudden we looked down the street and there it was!! It was a little smaller than I thought it would be, but still soo cool!! I just kept thinking to myself..."I'm in Rome!! I'm in Rome!!" haha

We got on the metro (which I had never rode before) and headed towards the Spanish Steps. Some of our group split off and went to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. The rest of us met up the the other 6 people from my group and we had supper together near the Trevi Fountain. It was such a nice place and a nice night :) Food = Delicious!!

After supper we took a cap to our hotel (SO nice) and slept in this morning!!! It was the first time all summer we were able to sleep in :) We left around 11 to find some markets, which we never found. Instead we went to the Pope's Square...pretty cool. Then we took the metro back to the Colosseum and visited the Forum (Foro), which is where most of the emperors of Rome lived, where Caesar's buried, and other fun ancient ruins.

There we met up with a few other people from the Sicily group and had some food, then went back to the metro to get on the train to come home. We got home around 7ish. The only complaints I had about the weekend was quite a bit of walking, and SO SO SO hot!! Everywhere we would stand, we would just sweat...and sweat...and sweat!!

This weekend everyone is going to Venice, but my friend from home, Kristen is coming to stay with me, so we're going to the Amalfi Coast!! I can't wait!! :)

 Entrance to The Vatican

 Pope John Paul II's grave

 Swiss guards

 Trevi Fountain

 me in front of the Trevi Fountain

 the big government building

 holding the Colosseum!! 

 so cool :)

 my coworkers always make fun of me when I drink Hi-C or Diet Pepsi, but I was thirsty, so I'm drinking one in the Colosseum...no big deal :)

 inside the Colosseum

 outside the Spanish Steps

 my supper on Saturday night!

 Maddie and me overlooking the Forum

Caesar's grave

4th of July in Sicilia!!

This past weekend 7 of us went to Sicily!! I fell in love with it :) We left around 7 pm Friday night and took the sleeper train to Catania in Sicily. We got there around 8:30 in the morning then walked around a bit. We went to the Elephant Square where there were lots of markets with TONS of fish, veggies, and fruit! It was unbelievable what they had there!!

After the market we went to a private beach called La Cucaracha...GORGEOUS! It was all sandy and clear. I played beach volleyball with Krystina and a couple Italian guys. It was pretty tough work and we didn't do the best, but its still fun to say I played beach volleyball in Sicily :)

After a few hours at the beach and most everyone (me NOT being one of them) getting sunburnt, we took the bus to the site where another Camp Adventure group was staying. We ended up going on base where they were having a 4th of July celebration sort of thing. There was good food, music, rides, and *FiReWoRkS*!! We stayed at their apartments Saturday night (so no paying for a hostel :))

Then Sunday morning we took a taxi to a camping resort. The other Camp A group had rented tents and sleeping bags for us, so we set those up and chilled the rest of the day! We went down to the beach, which wasn't really a beach. It was a pretty rough hike on trails, then down a lot of huge rocks!! Once we got down there we were the only ones, because of how far it was of a climb and we went swimming for a few hours :) I forced myself to not think about what was under me...I just know it was furry and slimy and VERY rocky :/

The rest of Sunday we played some cards, walked a little around the nearby town, made funny videos, took lots of pictures, and eventually we went out to eat at a Pizzeria at the resort. After supper there was music playing by the pool (which we couldn't swim in without wearing a swim cap...kind of silly) and we were dancing when a group of teenagers approached us and started speaking English to us! Turns out that there were 52 of them from Poland. They were a lot of fun to talk to!! They were with some camp that traveled around Italy for 2ish weeks.

Sleeping was interesting Sunday night...we had three tents, three sleeping bags, and twelve people. It was crowded and since we were on rocks, not very comfy either!! But it was still very cool to go camping overlooking the beach in Italy :)

Monday we left around noon from the train station to take a train back to Aversa, then a bus back to our apartments. We got home around 8:30. It was such a fun weekend!! We might be meeting up with some people from the other Camp A group this weekend when we go to Rome!!

I hope everyone's 4th of July's were awesome!!

 me in front of the statue at Elephant Square

 one of the many seafood market tables...yuck??

 our beach :)

 Maddie and me :)

 one of our tents we slept in...does this look like 4 people can fit??

 the view from where we camped out at

 one of the many obstacles we had to face while going down to the beach

 looking up at the people still climbing down the huge rocks :/

 in a random cave looking towards the water where we swam :)

 down near the water

 some of us in the water...you can see all the rocks we stepped on or swam over

 our two groups! 7 from mine and 4 from theres...the fifth is taking the picture :)

our boat had to get on a ferry to cross the water and we could get off to go up on the boat!