how many days and counting? (spring break twenty sixteen)

It's crazy to think I'm already past my halfway point of this semester abroad. Some people have been able to pull out the numbers, how many days we've been here and how many days until school ends, but to be honest I can never really remember, and I'm not sure that I want to. While I am having a blast here in Europe, Florence in particular, I will be happy to be home when the time comes. That being said I'm not exactly ready for that just yet. Luckily for me, I'm only halfway there.

What better way to celebrate my halfway point than with Spring break? I am fortunate enough to be able to say that I spent my Spring break, and the majority of the week following, with my parents and sister, who came all the way to Italy to visit me. I'm a lucky chica, I know.

On Friday, March 18, I met my family in Milano. This was my second time there, after having been there just the weekend before. We were all very excited to see each other and looking forward to doing an Italian tour together. The first night we were there we got settled and went over to the Milan duomo to take some pictures and had aperitivo with a great view of the magnificent cathedral.

The next morning we got up early climbed the Duomo, which was significantly cooler than any church or tower I have ever climbed up. Since the style of the Milan Cathedral is so different than many others, it doesn't have a prominent dome, and instead is well known for the buttresses and spires covering the facade, and getting to the top literally means just walking all over the roof, which is made of a couple different levels. It was a wonderful experience and well worth the wait in line.

When we were done with the Duomo we went over to Sforza castle to explore a bit, admiring the cats that gather in the used-to-be moat around the fortress. We also went to visit Teatro alla Scala, which is the Milanese opera house. Unfortunately they were having a rehearsal when we went in so we were only able to view the massive, gorgeous theater for a few minutes through a small box way up in the back, but fortunately they were actually practicing for a show so we got to hear someone sing.

On our way back toward our Air BnB we walked through the famous shopping mall, Vittorio Emanuele II, which is one of the first modern-day shopping centers ever built, housing Italian luxury brands such as Gucci, Valentino, Prada, Ferragamo, and many more. Near the center of the mall there is a mosaic with a bull on it, and according to tradition, you are supposed to grind your heel into the bull and spin around three times to avoid the bad luck of the architect who tragically died on the job while creating the lovely space. We patiently waited to do this, and after we were done, as we were getting organized and deciding what to do next, I continued to take photos of others' feet as they participated in the ritual. Naturally, a woman with an easy going pug stopped by, and after a moment she walked him over to the well-grounded hole in the mosaic, and the pug gained some good luck as he was turned in circles. It was a wonderful moment.

Before leaving Milan the following morning, we took a little family photo, awkwardly kneeling on the floor of the apartment so we would fit in the frame, and set out to the train station to head to our next destination of Venice.

So I told myself (and my roommate in Florence, and my parents, AND my sister) that I couldn't spend much money in Venice, primarily because I had already spent quite a bit during my first trip there, which was only for a day. I'm just going to say it now: I did not exactly succeed at this goal. Venice is wonderful and addicting... And expensive. I cannot say I regret anything I bought however.

We arrived in Venice mid day and probably entertained plenty of people as we dragged our luggage through the ridiculously tiny streets to our apartment. We had a lovely host who sat down with us and told us about all of the different places to visit, restaurants to try, and grocery stores to find. We set out that afternoon to San Marco Square to see the Venetian duomo, St. Mark's. The last quarter of my sandwich was stolen by a massive sea gull on the way there, which was both hilarious and infuriating given how hungry I was. Anyway, the church was free to get in and we weren't technically supposed to take pictures inside, but it was a beautiful church, highly decorated and frequently coated in gold.

We wandered the square, did a little shopping, regrouped in the apartment, and walked down the street to a canal for a gondola ride! We ended up with a lovely gondolier named Matteo, who was very informative and entertaining and took us on a much less crowded route, through more of the canals the locals live on, away from all the touristy chaos.

(Me, mom, and Matteo... After learning that although Matteo had Justin Bieber stuck in his head from his daughters, he is, in fact, a big Drake fan... Nora and Jaquan, I was instantly reminded of you.)

The next day we went back to San Marco square to see Doge's palace, which is an important landmark representing the government house from the past. I thought the coolest part of this experience was physically crossing over the Bridge of Sighs and into the prison on the other side of the canal. The bridge was named this way because of the sighs you would hear from prisoners being lead to their cells after conviction. Though the palace was cool to see, I haven't seen many ancient prisons, if any, and have definitely never taken any secret passageways through special bridges to get there.

(View out of a tiny window on the Bridge of Sighs, looking out at the people taking pictures of "us")

After the palace, we set out for the north side of the city to catch a boat to Murano, one of the smaller islands close by. The last time I visited Venice, we ventured over to Burano, a further and smaller island known for it's brightly colored houses. This time, Murano is instead larger, closer, and known for Murano glass, something that also makes Venice famous. Naturally this was a prime shopping location, so we spent our time here ducking into glass shops and back out into the sunshine, buying various treasures along the way.

(Sophie and I in our true forms)

(Family photo in Murano)

If you know me well at all you know I collect thimbles. (Yes, as in the old-fashioned, not often used round things people put on their fingers while they are sewing. No, not actual functional ones, just thimbles for people like me who find collecting cool-looking ones fun.) Of course, since I didn't have a thimble from Murano specifically, I had to buy one there, and since I would obviously want a Murano thimble made from Murano glass, I ended up spending a bit of money on it, like I did on the thimble I bought in Venice back in February. Despite spending my money on seemingly odd things rather than food, I can now say I have two very lovely, high quality glass thimbles.

That evening we went over to the Grand Canal to see Ponte Rialto, which, to be honest, was pretty disappointing given it was under construction and you could hardly see any of it, but we were able to enjoy the canal in the sunshine anyway, before returning that night for a great dinner.

(View of the Grand Canal, across the sidewalk from where we would be eating dinner)

(Hausman family chilling on our own private little patio)

Our next destination on our grand tour of Italy was Rome. I was thrilled because I had not been to Rome yet so I was eager to see what I thought of it. We had the most beautiful apartment while we were staying in Roma, and we got to sit out on our little terrace the first afternoon there to snack on some grissini (bread sticks of sorts) and robiola cheese.

When we walked out of the subway station after arriving we were also proudly greeted by our close neighbor, il Coloseo. :) He was incredibly lovely, in the sunlight and at night.

Day two in Rome was started off by making our way to Vatican City. We went to the Vatican Museum, which included the Sistine Chapel, the real Laocoon and His Sons sculpture, and various other artifacts and artworks. The chapel was lovely, but the environment wasn't the best despite the guards' best efforts at keeping the masses quiet. It is also quite difficult to take in pieces of such magnitude due to their importance as well as the sheer size.

When we were done in the museum we walked back around the wall to St. Peter's Square, where we waited and wondered what was going on. There was a small mass of people gathered in front of the basilica and sure enough, moments later we spotted a small group come out of the church and we got to see Papa Francesco!

He was quite far from us but the experience of actually seeing him was wonderful. I'm pretty sure he is one of the only "famous people" I've seen in person, not to mention a human of such high importance, so it was almost unbelievable.

When Pope Francis had driven away in the pope-mobile we continued into Saint Peter's and enjoyed the inside of the church, which was gorgeous.

After leaving Vatican City we went to do some exploring of the iconic landmarks in Rome. First we saw and climbed up the Spanish steps, which were sadly under quite a bit of construction. Next, though, we went to one of my favorite spots, where the sun even came out for us: Trevi Fountain. We each went through the little ritual of tossing a coin into the fountain behind us so that one day we will return to Rome again, and happily sat among hundreds of tourists admiring the beautiful structure.

(Each of us throwing our coins into Trevi Foutain)

Next we wandered our way through the streets to find the Pantheon, stopping at a McDonald's along the way! (Because I do actually get sick of Italian food. Trust me, you would too eventually.) The Pantheon was old and beautiful and such an incredible building. Everything in Rome kind of blows your mind when you think of when it was built and what technologies the people who built it had.

(Inside the Pantheon)

We walked a little ways to find a famous gelato place called Giolitti to have one of Italy's most prized desserts. I have SNC's Fr. Neilson to thank for my knowledge of this place. I got my first cone here (rather than my usual dish of gelato) and all the flavors we each had were delicious.

We had a great dinner that night and it was my first of many truffle-based meals. Throughout this trip I ordered probably five or so primi piatti (usually pasta dishes) that had white or black truffle in them. They are a product well known if not exclusively known to Italy, and I love them.

(I lucked out and was served half of each dish I was considering, a white truffle fettuccine dish, and a black truffle ravioli dish.)

For our final full day in Rome we got up early to visit our great neighbor, the Colosseum. We actually didn't have to wait in line too long and we spent a while wandering around the massive ampitheater trying to imagine what it was like back in the time of the gladiators.

I absolutely loved seeing it, but like so many other ancient monuments it is very hard to imagine them as they once were. I actually though to myself that it is probably cooler looking now, to us, half fallen apart, than it may have been back during it's peak of existence, just because to us it may not have looked too spectacularly different. Of course, given the time period from which it came that would make it amazing enough, but the thought did cross my mind and made me wonder.

(Il Colosseo)

When we were done exploring the lovely giant we headed across the street to get into il Foro Romano e Palatino (the Forum and Palatine Hill) The two were kind of "squished" together in one massive land space (hence the "squished" in quotes) and it did not take us long to feel as if we could spend days exploring and still not quite see everything. It was a gorgeous day and actually grew hot by the end of our self-guided tour, and everything in sight was unbelievably beautiful.

(View of the Forum from Palatine Hill)

After regrouping we also headed to a different part of town to check out a church for one specific piece of art. The church is called Santa Maria della VIttoria, and off to its left side sits Bernini's exquisite Ecstasy of St. Teresa sculpture.

I was actually more in shock of the beauty and detail within the church itself rather surprised by how little lighting the piece had, but I am so fortunate to have been able to drag my family all the way over there to see it.

Our final destination of the trip was back to home sweet home for me: Firenze. When we arrived we had my favorite pasta at the fresh pasta place in il Mercato Centrale, which blew the minds of my family members, rightfully so. We also hiked up to Piazzale Michelangelo which presented Florence to us in some beautiful afternoon sun before going back to the city center to check into our Air BnB. Though we had to lug our bags up a ridiculous number of stairs to get to the penthouse, we were greeted by a phenomenal terrace, and also a cat, who became our new best friend for the week.

(Ciao gatito, as I say in my Span-alian)

On Satuday, our first full day being in Florence, we actually left Florence for a day trip to Pisa, about an hour train ride west. We saw the tower of course and explored Miracle Square a bit, but to be honest there was not much else to do and we didn't feel like paying to get up the tower or waiting in line for the few other things, so in not too long we headed back to Florence.

(Pretty self-explanatory cliché tourist photo)

While we were actually in Florence we spent lots of time exploring, relaxing on terrace, eating gelato, and trying different restaurants, many of which are on or near the street of my actual Florence apartment, which made it even cooler.

(Mom, Sophie and I standing on the very top of the terrace as dad took our picture from the piazza below)

(We found a dark beer, specifically an oatmeal stout, that was MADE IN ASSISI and was actually delicious!)

The Sunday I had my family in Florence was Easter! It seems like ages ago already, but that morning we got up very early to go to the Duomo for a good view of Scoppio del Carro, which is a fantastic Florentine Easter celebration. There is a parade full of Florentines dressed in historic attire that end up in the piazza right in front of the Duomo, and at the very end of the parade a massive cart was pulled in by four HUGE Chianina breed bulls, which are snow-white and apparently the biggest cattle in the world. The cart is very tall and elaborately decorated, and covered in tons of sparklers and fireworks and exploding things! We all waited very patiently in what would soon become a massively crowded square for the spectacle of the cart to begin. When it did it was wonderful. There were tiny flames and sparkles everywhere coming from all of the fireworks and firecrackers all over the cart. It was definitely the literal definition celebrating the holiday with a bang.

(Scoppio del Carro, grand finale)

On Easter Sunday we also headed over to the South side of the river to visit the Boboli Gardens, something that Sophie had not seen the first time she was in Florence, and something I was very much so looking forward to seeing as well. This was another one of those places that feels almost too big to really soak up in any reasonable amount of time, but we made it work, and it was another gorgeous day for us.

(View of Pitti Palace in front of Florence from the Boboli Gardens)

Sadly Sophie had to be shipped back off on Monday morning so that she could go back to the real world of school, but I was lucky enough to spend a few more days with my parents. I was still continuing to eat lots of truffle pastas and we went to see various other landmarks of the area, along with getting some more shopping done.

We got to go into the church of my neighborhood, Santa Croce, which was literally a couple hundred feet from our apartment. That was very cool, partially just because I see it all the time and had yet to go in, but also because this was as close as I will ever get to "meeting" Michelangelo!

(Me standing in front of Michelangelo's burial site)

Aside from Michelangelo, we also got to see the graves of Dante and Galileo, along with numerous others, as well as Donatello's Annunciation. I found the church very interesting too because it is quite large but has a very different interior than most other church I've seen so far, which was rather refreshing.

(Mom and Dad admiring a large mural in a side chapel of the main church)

Another place we went was to the Galleria Accademia to see the REAL David. After weeks and weeks of being in Florence, seeing Fake Dave almost daily in Piazza della Signoria, going to see Michelangelo's stunning masterpiece was quite nice.

(REAL DAVID)

Unfortunately I had to battle with my time because the last few days my parents were with me I also had to go to class, but Wednesday, their last full day in Florence, we had a pretty fantastic schedule down. I had class at 12 and before that we managed to climb all the way up the Duomo, climb up the bell tower, go through the actual church as well as the crypt, go to the market to get fresh ravioli for lunch, and walk through the baptistery of the Duomo. It was pretty great.

The three of us got a great spot in line and then climbed what I counted to be 455 steps to the cupola (dome) of the Duomo, even though other places say it's 467 steps. It was incredible seeing the city from there and I fell in love with it all over again as if it were brand new. It was impossible to catch on a camera, like the grand canyon, and I didn't really want to get down. (...Not just because it cost 15 euro and a whole lot of energy to get up there, but those may have factored into it a little.)

When we got down all the steps from that, dad and I walked about thirty feet and immediately started our ascent up the campanile, the bell tower. It's not as tall as the cupola, but I lost track of my counting after having barely gotten started. Let's just say by the time I got down from that too my legs were a little noodle-ie. Surprisingly enough none of these heights seemed to bother me.

(View of the Duomo from the bell tower)

I am also fortunate that I am in Florence right now, because I was able to see the baptistery. It has been closed/covered for renovation for quite some time now and just reopened a couple of months efore our arrival for the semester. I walk past it every day and cannot imagine not being able to see it.

(Inside of the baptistery)

After three nights of trying, we also finally got into Gustapizza for my parents to try some of the most loved pizza in Florence, and we spent multiple evenings out on our terrace enjoying the sunshine that you miss on the streets, before it turns into gorgeous sunsets.

(Palazzo Vecchio and il Duomo from our terrace)

On Wednesday, my parents' last night in Florence, I took them over to Piazza della Repubblica after dinner because they had not really seen it yet and I could not handle the concept of them leaving without doing so. Naturally, it took my mother about ten seconds of looking at the charming piazza for her decide that we were going to go on the carousel. Although Dad acted, in disbelief, as if he didn't really want to at first, he obviously had a blast. This has since become one of my favorite pictures I've ever seen of my parents.

I am so lucky to have been able to spend my spring break, plus a week, spending time with my family exploring Italy as well as showing them around my temporary home of Florence. While I am looking forward to the time I still have here I will be very excited to join them all at home again this summer. Since they have left I have already been on one other trip I will be posting about very soon, and I have another one coming up this weekend, so I have obviously been keeping busy, but there really isn't anything quite like traveling with your family, especially when it's as closely knit as ours is. So thanks you guys for coming to visit me, and I will see you in about two months!