In the summer
of 2000, I went to Italy with a group of people for nearly four
weeks. It was by far one of the most incredible experiences of
my lifetime. The country is absolutely breathtaking and beautiful
far beyond description. We stayed primarily in Florence, but also
visited several other cities throughout the country. I learned
so much about myself and about the world on this trip, not to
mention that I made some wonderful friends. That's not to say
I liked everyone on the trip. I won't be rude and name their names,
but some people were beyond irritating. But lets not focus on
the negative, right? Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures
that I and my friends took while we were having the time of our
lives... Enjoy! Oh yeah, and like always... please be patient
while the pics load :)
This
is the whole group of us, minus Munfred, who was taking the photograph.
In the front row you see Nettina, Russell, Kurt, and Andy. In
the back is Kathleen, Sarah, Me (look how tall I look!), Angie,
Jen, Kim, Jeannie, and Killian.
This
is us gals in the garden where we were staying. Kim is showing
some leg, Angie and I are trying to show some cleavage.
This
is the city of Assisi. It's the home of St. Francis and St. Clare.
It was one of my favorite places that I visited while in Italy.
Jen
and I discovered a new drink in Italy, the B-52. They actually
catch the drink on fire and you've got to suck it down before
your straw melts. :)
Kim,
Jen, me and Angie on the beach in Viareggio. Hey Jen, where are
your shades?
These
are the Boboli Gardens at the Medici palace. Breathtaking!!
Angie
and Jen hanging out on yet another bridge in Venice. Venice is
made up of 1200 islands, all connected by bridges. There are
no vehicles allowed on the islands, nothing motorized, no bikes,
nothing. You get wherever you are going by crossing the bridges
or getting in a boat. It is so amazing. And all those steps are
great for the butt. :)
This
was an actual prison cell in Venice. It was terribly creepy.
Prisoners used to die waiting for their trials because the place
was so awful. Here's me and Angie chaining ourselves to the wall.
The
perfect man: He's tall, built, perpetually rock hard (heehee),
perfectly proportioned (well, almost anyway), and his mouth is
permanantly shut. :) This is The David. This is so amazing, it
stands16 feet tall and has a room devoted to itself at the Acadamy
in Florence.
The
girls definitely knew how to party much better than the guys
on the trip. Here's Sarah, me, Jen, Anilla, Anna, Kim, Angie
and Kathleen at this great little bar that we found there. Anilla
and Anna were two girls that worked at the place where we were
staying that we all became friends with.
The
View from Assisi
The
Duomo Church in Florence. The dome on the top of the church is
a mathematical miracle. In theory it is impossible, but the church
has stood for hundreds of years.
This
is me outside of a restuarant in Fiesole.
This
is Angie & I standing outside of the Duomo Cathedral, just
to give you an idea of how massive the place is!
Me
(And some kid that I don't know! I hope he doesn't mind being
plastered on the Internet!) at Michaelangelo's grave.
The
Leaning Tower of Pisa
We
walked soooo much over there. Thank goodness, cause I certainly
ate a lot. But your feet got so sore that you learned to take
a break whenever you had a spare second. Here I am sitting outside
a storefront in Lucca, waiting for Nettina cause she had to find
a certain shoe store. Just as a strange sidenote, one of the
visitors to this page once mentioned that this is the only picture
of me on this entire site where I'm not smiling. Weird, eh?
Here's
the group again on the stairs in the place we were staying. There
were sooo many stairs, and we couldn't smoke in the rooms so
we had to go out to the garden to smoke and then back up all
those damn stairs. Don't they realize that smokers don't have
the lungs for that??
Kurt,
Kim, Andy, Jeannie, and me, a more informal picture on the stairs.
Venice
was definitely one of my favorite places to visit. It's so unreal
to see a city with so much water running through it. It's one
of those things that you don't really believe until you see it.
Please come back soon!