And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

Friday I went to Cinque Terre with 3 friends. Cinque Terre is composed of 5 small sea towns along the western coast of the peninsula. We arrived at the town farthers north and then travelled down the coast to end in the last sea town. Cinque Terre is usually a great beach spot, but the weather was stormy so that definitely didn't work out. Though I think I may have appreciated it more because I really got to enjoy the towns more than I would have if I spent hours on a beach. The water was incredible due to the storm so the waves were huge and intimidating. Our most interesting adventure occured on the final stretch when we were strolling down Via d'Amore on the way to Riomaggiore. As these two american boys passed us one stopped and recognized my friend Becca from his Italian class last semester. As it turns out, he took a leave of absence frum USC to travel around Italy and write (he's a creative writing major). It was ridiculous! What a small world! Anyway, we had a great time and then travelled back to Florence for the night

Saturday morning we headed to Venice for the rest of the weekend. The city was unbelievable. the canals and the buildings are incredible.It's really indescribable in that it's exactly what you expect and yet not. I know that's vague... I guess you'll just have to go yourselves! We walked around Piazza San Marco and went inside the Bassilica which has gorgeous mosaics. Then we just wandered around and got lost... which was lots of fun in itself! We ended up having dinner at a little Indian restaurant which was amazing, although it was probably exaggerated if only because it wasn't pasta... :) The hostel was an adventure as we ended up taking a 50 minute bus ride to get there... unexpected. But everything worked out and Sunday we had a nice breakfast, took a gondola ride and wantered around the city shopping. In all it was a spectacular weekend and I hope the rest will be just as great!!!

I hope you all are having amazing adventures of your own and I can't wait to hear all about it.

Buon giorno!
ashlee