MARZO a month of travel

WOW it is incredible to think of the thousand of new things I have seen in just the last month....man it flew by...

Sunday March 9th I met with a large group of my school mates in the Cagliari Airport, all getting ready to go on our school trip! Every year Calazanzio goes on a school trip to some city in Europe. This year was Strasbourg, France. Strasbourg is right on the border of France and Germany. We stayed in a hotel on the German side, a strange little hotel with stuffed animal heads and antlers hung all over the walls, weird paintings, and a crazy little German hotel manager. We all had roomates, I with a girl named Ilaria. The first day we arrived there in the evening and settled in to the hotel, had dinner, and hung around. I was excited for this trip to get to know everyone a bit more, and of course to see all these new places. And it went really well. Strasbourg is beautiful, a small typical town, cute and antique, with a river going through it, skinny, small, tall, colorful houses, beautiful churches and buildings, cobblestone roads, people riding around on bikes and walking everywhere, sun shinning but kinda cold... We went to a few really cool museums, lunch, and the Cathedrial of Notre Dame. Of course, not the famous one in Paris, but this one was very cool also! The sturcture and architecture of these buildings never stops to amaze me. The next day we went to Le Haut-Koenigsbourg castle (http://ecoles.jeriko.fr/studio-internet/ht_koenigsbourg/ht_koenigsbourg/nss-folder/album/vueaerienne1a.jpg). Thats now the second official castle I've seen haha. I love them though, this one was really cool...it had a midevil feeling... and was just really pretty. We took a tour, then went to Alsace, the little town below, and stayed there the rest of the day. At night we all went out around town and to a cafè and stuff near by our German hotel, everyone together having a way good time. The next day we went back to Strasbourg, saw the parliament building, went to a modern art museum, then had free time to walk around again. The last day we got up early and were off for the journy home. We all got on the bus, and first stop was in Letzten Switzerland. We got there around 10 in the morning and had time to go around and do whatever we wanted with whoever we wanted for the next 6 hours. Oh my gosh I completely fell in love with Switzerland. It is amazing. This town was perfect.. sorrounded by the incredible snowy alp mountains, the atmosphere was soo relaxed and beautiful, the air was so fresh, it wasn't that cold, the buildings were beautiful, the lake was clear....I don't even know exactly why..but those 6 hours were probably my favorite out of the whole trip just because that was my first time ever in Switzerland, and I now absolutly love it. I want to go back so bad! It was just...beautiful. Oh man, and the chocolate? WOW. Never had anything like it before haha. Allrriiggghhtty, after that, we went to Milan and caught our flight, and arrived back in Cagliari March 13th at around 11:30ish at night. I went home, and...repacked!

March 14th I woke up nice and early, and off to the airport again! I flew to Pisa, by myself, for my next little adventure. I got off the plane, bought my bus ticket to Florence, and a city ticket to go see the tower real fast! I got off the bus, ran over and saw the famous leaning tower of Pisa..took lots of pictures... oh man it was SO COOL!!!!!!!!! Then I went back to catch my bus..went to Florence..and had two hours before my next bus!! But, come to find out, the center of Florence is small! All the amazing monuments are all right there! So in two hours I saw a bit of all, of course, not nearly enough, but the monuments were just...incredible..there was the church of S. Maria Novella, then church of S. Lorenzo, S. Maria del Fiore (HUGE marble dome...sooo amazing....) then Palazzo Vecchio which had the "statue of david" and then I went over to this super cool bridge called Ponte Vecchio..looks like buildings across the water. ALL so cool. Then I went to Siena where I finally met all the other exchange students who were doing this whole thing togetha. It was me, Erica, Maria, Kass, Charlie, Marianne, Gabrielle, Oda, Kevin, Chris, the AFS Cagliari director Andrea, and a teenage volunteer Niccola. We then saw Siena together, went to the main Piazza, climbed the super high clock tower thing, and you could see EVERYWHERE. I couldn't even grasp it....it was amazing. The houses were so old, the streets just a complete maze twisty mess, extremely small...you could see the ancient city walls...the 4 main churches...everything. Ah I could have stayed up there forever. After that, we went to our hotel in Colle... A cute old Italian city in Toscany...mm beautiful. THEN! Next day..off to....ROMA!!!!!!!!! WOOOO. Rome was amazing. The coolest city I have ever seen. There were so many people and so much going on..but it just has this really good chill kind of feeling to it...Anyways I just had my jaw dropped the whole time. EVERY single courner you turn, you run right into another amazing ancient monument, church, tower, fountain..gosh..everything. I was with all my friends, we were just having a BLAST. We saw soo much I can't even name it all. By far my favorite was the Coliseum though. Unbelievable. I just couldn't get over it... couldn't believe this sturcture was real and still here today. Seeing it in pictures doesn't even compare. Sunday was a cool day...it was Palm Sunday. I'm not catholic and still don't really understand it, but all I know is when we went to St. Peters. Basilica..there were THOUSANDS of people there, and we saw the Pope! It was actually really cool! It was all on live TV across the nation..and there we were right in the piazza! Sorrounded by amazing pillars and the huge chapel...right there in Vatican City. That rest of the day after that was just really relaxed..just went site seeing all day..nice evening... the next day a group of us got up super early to get in line for the Vatican Museum. The two hours in line was well worth it...and the 3 hours or more we spent in it was not nearly enough. This museum is outstanding, jam PACKED with art, statues, paintings, everything.... Ah I just wanted to learn about ever single thing and was just wishing I knew more...the next time I go I'm for sure signing up for the 4 hour tour haha. The Sistine Chapel....was incredible. I just sat down in there and just...could not believe. It is out of this world. I could have easly spent hours in there, carefully looking over each design and story. Wow. So after we made it out of the museum, we went right to St. Peters. Also incredible. All the tombs of the past Popes... all these amazing works of art by Michaelangelo, Pietà one of his most famous..it was by for sure the most outstanding Chapel I have ever seen. I need a wider range of adjectives to describle all these places..sorry haha. But really it was amazing. Lets see...Oh yeah that day was also St. Patricks day. We went to an Irish pub that night, it was fun. Well, yeah. Thats a tiny bit of Rome for ya. I absolutly loved it. We all flew home March 18th.

Next in this crazy month came Easter. One of my best friends came and stayed with us for the last 9 days, so that was extremely fun. For easter we had a big, traditional lunch with family. Then the day after easter is called pasquetta, (easter is pasqua in Italian), and the day of pasquetta you traditionally go out with friends to the beach, go to your beach houses, eat lunch, have fun..relaz...too bad this years weather was HORRIBLE for pasquetta! We went to this little park called Sardegna in Miniatura...but didn't really even enjoy it because it was raining and hailing all day. Oh well. The next day was nice, we got to go to the beach (not yet ready for swimming though..soon I hope). Wednesday (yesterday) I went back to school for the first time since March 9th, but its ok, all that traveling was so important and just a thing I HAD to do. Now I am just settling back into my normal Italian life.... 8 days and 3 months until I am home everyone. You can figure out the date :) I was going to let it be a suprise..but oh well! I plan to completely stop speaking english after this update, I want my Italian really good before I come home.. Other then that...I just want to enjoy these last months to the fullest! Any advice or updates of your own, send me an email! Don't be shy to contribute to my disappearing bank account either ;). Well, lots of love to everyone!! Sorry I had you waiting so long for a blog and update, but don't worry, I am alive and doing great!!!!

BACI!!!!

Love
Laurie

PS- I'm going on my own organized spead EUROTOUR with another exchange student July 15th-30th. We are going to LONDON, DUBLIN, AMSTERDAM, BERLIN, BARCELONA, PARIS, VENICE, and MILAN. I am so excited! We are doing everything low cost, and plan to stay in Hostels and inexpensive bed and breakfasts, but would REALLY APPRECIATE any advice or reccomends as of what to see and do in these cities! Also if you have ANY friends or relatives in ANY of these places that would by chance like to host two very good girls for a night, that would help us out SO MUCH! THANK YOU!!!!! Let me know at soccer_rocker44@hotmail.com

CIAO!