Ciao Italia- a month in Italy comes to a close....

Venice

I only spent two days in Venice, with one day of touring the city so I will post some pictures but my experience there wasn't as in depth as it has been in other places. The best thing to do in Venice is to just get lost in the city walking down the small and unorganized streets. Seeing a city on water is quite interesting. It is very pretty and great place to spend a day at. Venice is a very expensive city though so I stayed in a trailer park outside of the city while I was there!.... it was awesome! I loved it- it was quite the nice trailer park. There was a pool and Nikki and I were able to get a mobile room to ourselves- amazing!

Venice- the typical way to get from point A from point B

Alley ways of water

Day in Venice

Walking over a pretty bridge

Trinket shops everywhere

Tiny little alleys- hope you are skinny!

Pretty bridges and shops everywhere

Tuscany

After a quick trip to Venice I made my way to Tuscany. This is an area I was very excited to spend time in.  I had two full weeks in this region, and while I would have loved to spend more time in the countryside, I can still confirm that it is a beautiful area of Italy and definitely worth a visit. I spent time in Florence, Follonica, Siena and Pisa while I was in Tuscany. I couch surfed the whole way and met a lot of new people.  Here is a small bit on each area I spent time in!

Florence- Round 1
When Nikki and I arrived to Florence we made our way to our first couch surf stop in an amazing location- right in the center of the lovely city. We were staying with a couch surfer named Giuseppe. He is a crazy dude with lots of energy and tons of friends. It seemed as if he knew everyone in Florence. He and his friends were nice enough to show both Nikki and I around on our first two days in city. We were taken to see the Duomo, the center, the old bridge, and quite a few old churches and piazzas. I apologies in advance; you won’t get too many details on museums or monuments in the remainder of my blog as I am the worst tourist ever and I don’t enter into most of these. Opps! Don’t get me wrong, I think they are all beautiful and valuable and if I were on a vacation I would definitely enjoy them in more depth but when you travel for an extended period of time you can only enter to so many churches and monuments before they start to blend a small bit. Throughout the end of this trip, I have been much more involved in meeting the people living in the area and getting to know what I can of their culture. That is part of why couch surfing has been so great. It is a way to meet the locals and get to know what it is really like to live in these countries I am traveling too. 

El Duomo- view from Giuseppe's balcony

Great market in Florence

Duomo during the day

Gelato Festival!

River in Florence

Out at aperetif with our couch surfing host and his friends

Beautiful Florence

Great city

Follonica- a quite beach town in Tuscany
After a few days in Tuscany I made my way to a beach town called Follonica. It was a very quiet and relaxing town.  I was able to go for a run in the morning and enjoy a late afternoon tea for the two days I was there.  I cooked Italian dinner with my host each night and I was able to learn a little bit more about “the art of cooking pasta.” They are very serious about how to cook pasta and what sauce or meat each type of pasta should be paired with. My host, Alessio, explained to me that the Italian food in America is just not Italian food at all! Haha! I was able to see more of the country side in Follonica which was really nice. It reminded me a bit of the Midwest and the beautiful country sides that I used to see every day in Iowa. I took a really nice hike to a very beautiful beach and enjoyed an amazing day of sun! 

View from the Balcony in Follonica

the country side

Pretty hike to the beach

Follonica

Day at the beach

Sienna & Pisa- The Leaning Tower visit 
I was excited to be back in a city with a little more action after a couple of quite days at the beach. In Sienna I surfed with Sercan- a really cool dude from Turkey! Nikki was lucky enough to find Sercan and we enjoyed three days together in Siena. We did a lot of cooking and hanging out for our time with Sercan. Siena is pretty small and we were able to see it in a day. Nikki and I cooked all sorts of American food for Sercan . He was happy with every meal so looks like we haven’t forgotten everything while we have been away. We took a day trip to Pisa just to take funny pictures with the Leaning Tower. We got some pretty good shots since Nikki made us stay there for two hours trying all sorts of funny things- it was actually pretty funny and we laughed a lot- mostly at other people doing the same thing as us. While we may reunite in Spain for a day at the beach,  Sienna was the last town I travelled in Nikki’s company. So now my backpacking crew is down to one and I am finishing my trip the way I started- solo. While I the company I have had throughout this experience has been beyond incredible, I am excited to finish this trip on my own and test out how my traveling skills have improved since day one.

Siena

Nikki and I- enjoy the view of all of Siena

Duomo in Siena- doumos everywhere!

Sercan- our couch surf host

yup- we shared that little thing!

Pisa!

So funny! Tons of people doing funny things to take pictures with the Leaning Tower.

Now that is one big hug!

Florence- Round 2
I ended my time in Italy in Florence. I spent a few days just walking around the city, trying to get to know the area as best as possible, and finding my own little special spots. For example, I found a lovely library where I was able to spend an entire raining day reading on the covered roof with a view of the Duomo. I couch surfed with two different hosts- Guiseppe again, and Ilya (a couch surfing king- he has hosted 90 people in a year!). I even was so lucky to meet an American, Zac, at an Irish bar one raining day who is living in Italy with his mother for a month. They took me in for two nights and gave me a home! I spent two fun days with them- they were so kind, helpful, and beyond generous! I could never thank them enough and once again I made friends who will forever have a home with me where I am. This was a wonderful end to my time in Italy. A month flew by quickly but I was lucky to see so much. Ciao Italy-Grazie for the amazing pizza, pasta, and 3 extra kilos that came with it! ;)

Ilja- my very Italian couch surfing host- cooking an Italian Dinner!

With the locals- by the end of this month I can officially understand Italian- we communicated by them speaking Italian and me speaking Spanish- how fun!

Yum!

tiny cars everywhere

Out for aperetif with couch surfers

Zac and Michele- American family who adopted me in Florence!

the famous David- Ciao Italia!