Mountain Biking. No. Really. MOUNTAIN Biking.

Today has been very, very, interesting. Woke up early and walked twenty minutes to rent mountain bikes for the day. When Pietro had told me we were going mountain biking I assumed trail biking, like I had done in the states... man was I wrong. Hills and peaks like I've never ridden before. It was awesome, but incredibly difficult.

Countryside I was riding through.

So after all of that working, we made it back to the Villa where we were late for lunch, so Pietro called ahead and they more or less made a feast for us. It was incredible. After all of that, I went to dinner, which, as usual, was absolutely delicious. I probably had more wine than I should've, which I got great wine at the supermarket for under €3. After dinner, Bridget and I went outside to have a cigar and drink more wine and we invited Father Meinrad to join us after he had finished with confessions. One thing led to another and we ended up going into Settignano to drink with him and Pietro. It was a fantastic night and a great overall day.

Tomorrow I plan on resting my tired bones and sleep in. A lot of the group is going to Siena, but I'm planning on going there later this semester. Hope everything is going well in the midwest (even if it's cold). Oh, and a shout out to all my St. James Academy peeps: Thanks for reading and following my travels -- I really appreciate it and I'll try to make it up to SJA before you guys get out of school.

Salute di Settignano, Firenze, Italia!

My Blue Suede Shoes

I'm sure plenty of you are confused or concerned about the title of this post. That's ok. For those of you following along at home, I've been in a search for athletic shoes since I arrived in Italy. I ventured into Florence again today with Lauren and as it were, I found a store where I found moderately priced shoes. They are blue. And they resemble suede. There you have it. They're made by a company called Lotto, which I've never heard of, but I'll give you a review when they fall apart on me, because in all likelihood, they will.

We went out to drink tonight after dinner. FUN. Ran into Dylan (the leader of the St. Thomas Moore Society) and got free shots. They were lemon shots with an actual lemon sitting on top that was lit on fire. It was quite enjoyable. So I really didn't pay for anything the entire night. I'm really not in the greatest of moods right now. It's hard to explain. You'd think being here I'd find distractions for myself, but even that hasn't been enough. Know that I am praying for you as well.

Anywho! On to brighter things. Tomorrow, Pietro, Adam, and I, are going mountain biking through Tuscany tomorrow. It is going to be awesome!

God bless!

This is a picture I took yesterday in front of the Duomo.

Pisa & Lucca

Wow. Today has been awesome. Long. But awesome. The Villa put together a trip for us to Pisa and Lucca. We left around nine o'clock this morning, jumping on the #10 bus into San Marco so that we could get to Santa Maria Novella for our train to Pisa. Surprisingly, 33 out of 40 people decided to venture out with the group. After an hour train ride, we arrived in Pisa where we would hop onto another bus to get to the only real reason you'd visit Pisa in the first place: the Leaning Tower.

The Square in Pisa. Beautiful, no?

Anyway! Pisa aside from the three buildings you see here (a baptistry, a cathedral, and a tower) there really wasn't much to keep my attention. I ate lunch on the stairs you may or may not see to your left from a bag lunch provided by the Villa. After getting my fill of the tower, I wandered around the square looking in various merchant's shops to see what they had for sale. I wasn't particularly impressed by the selection and passed on everything. Disappointing, right? After we left Pisa was when the real fun began. We jumped back onto the bus that had brought us to the Tower and headed straight back to the train station so that we could hit yet another train to Lucca, Italy.

You should be happy that I didn't post or take a picture of myself "holding up" the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Lucca was a great, great, town. The part we visited was inside a giant wall. Pietro was telling us that we could rent bikes and ride them around the wall and the city itself. I love riding, so I decided to walk the ten or so kilometers to rent a bicycle.

Hey look! I'm on a bike!

Biking was absolutely fantastic. The views were amazing and the activity was revitalizing and made me realize just how much I missed biking back home on a regular basis. Only downside ended up being that I couldn't take many pictures of the city... because I was riding a bike... Well.. I guess I got a few from my bike, but it wasn't my camera. Kay had asked me to get a picture of her riding. I'm experienced enough, so I figured it wouldn't be too hard. Of course, I hadn't anticipated or taken into account the fact that there were about a million pedestrians in our way. So after about fifteen minutes of dodging, weaving, and balancing, I finally got a good picture. Luckily I didn't crash, either.

After four hours in Lucca (and gelato half way through) we hopped on our train back to Florence. After an hour and a half we arrived and headed back to Settignano to get pizza. It was some of the best pizza I have ever had. My days just keep getting better, and the people keep becoming more awesome. Love it!

God bless!