Its hard to believe that our first week in Italy is over already, but what a fabulous week it has been! Since I last posted we've traveled to Florence, Arezzo and Anghiari, all of which are incredibly beautiful. We've also had our first family dinner with our host families, survived our first psychology test, and finally mastered our navigation skills of the streets within the city walls. We've taken probably 500 pictures, met some new friends and of course, had more delicious meals courtesy of Margarita.
Thursday was our first big adventure on our own. We were up at 6:30am bright and early to get ready and head out to Florence. We traveled there as a group, but it was up to us to navigate our way back on our own. We took the local bus to Arezzo and from there rode the train right into the heart of Florence. We hit the ground running from the start and took a two and a half walking tour of the city stopping to take pictures and sight see along the way. We saw the Duomo, the local market, the Ponte di Vecceo, the imitation Statue of David, and ended the tour by hiking up a hill where we could see the entire city laid out below us. It was absolutely breath taking. Once we reached the top we treated ourselves to strawberry smoothies and stood in awe of the beautiful city displayed in front of us. After taking an overload of pictures, Dr. Vitarbo turned us loose for the afternoon and wished us good luck as we set out on our first "big girl adventure" and took on the city. Allison, Ives, Samantha and I went to a nice little pizzeria right inside the city and took a break for lunch before starting our shopping spree. After that we went to Zara, which is Kate Middleton's favorite store so of course we had to check it out. We then ventured into the market and turned on our bargaining skills. We all bought Italian leather purses and lots of other goodies. Before we knew it we had spent two hours in the market and it was time to head back to the train station. Our day in Florence came to an end all too quickly. There was so much to do and see and simply not enough time to do it in. I guess that means I'll have to go back!
Yesterday, we all met our host families for the first time. Well, almost all of us. Winnie and I are paired together and our family was out of town this weekend, so we got the pleasure of having dinner with Sarah and her family. Sarah is basically the all in one coordinator of the Italy side of our study abroad program. She knows everything and everyone, takes care of all the paper work, plans our city excursions, coordinates our meals and anything else you can think of. She's absolutely fabulous and we just adore her. Sarah has three kids and her husband is a chef who is finishing his last year of college and learning to speak English. We had the best time last night playing and dancing with the children after dinner. They were too cute and before we left they told Sarah they couldn't wait for us to come back. We're hoping they'll all come to the palazzo tomorrow for lunch after mass.
Today we set out on another excursion, this time to Arezzo and Anghiari. We visited some churches, a museum with paintings of "the Legend of the True Cross" by Pierro Francesco, and ate the best gelato we've had yet - Menta! The best parts of today were simply walking around the quaint little towns and taking pictures of the amazing views. We also climbed the city walls - it was quite class looking in my bare feet and dress, but what can I say, I love an adventure.
Now its back to the palazzo to catch up on homework and studying. Tomorrow we're going to mass at 10 across the street in the main cathedral here in Sansepolcro and afterwards we're hoping to climb the bell tower! All in all, this has definitely been an incredible start to the best summer of my life!

 the cathedral in arezzo

arezzo town square

menta gelatto

climbing the city wall

anghiari

the beautiful poppy flowers