Sono Qui

Yep, that's right, I'm in Italy. At this very moment, while all of you are sleeping away, it is 12:15pm here and I am sitting in this wonderful little cafe drinking tea and eating a chocolate pastry. Yum. We found this cafe right down the street from my apartment that has free wifi. So, my roommate and I got up today (after sleeping in a little - jetlag is a pretty serious ailment) and headed to this cafe to check some e-mail and whatnot. It is so good to hear a little from home too.

sidenote - a dog just came and left the cafe.

Okay, back to being in Italy. The flights were long, the lay overs were longer (not really, but it seemed like it. I sat in Frankfurt for 4 and a half hours.) But, alas, I am here. My apartment is fantastic. Sarah Rumsey would love it!! Someone tell Sarah that I said that, because I have a feeling she won't check this for a while. We live on the top floor, up about 70 flights of stairs (really 8 I think, because we live on the American fourth, and Italian third floor, and there are two flights of stairs per floor). Either way, it's way up there, and lugging my luggage up that was a chore. We have two beautiful views. One overlooks these awesome red rooftops, and trees, and the other is to this little area between all the apartments where everyone hangs their clothes to dry. That's right, we have one of those great hang your clothes outside on lines places. It's just awesome. I wish I had uploaded my pictures. Somehow I messed that up, so you'll just have to wait a few more days. Maybe I'll get them on tonight, but doubtful.

The whole city is just, I don't even know if I can say. All the buildings are old and everyone speaks Italian. That's the easiest way to describe it, but I know that helps you absolutely none. I love just walking down the street and listening to the people around me, and knowing that in a few days I will begin to hopefully understand some. When that happens I'll be able to get up early in the morning and listen to the neighbors below me who cook the most amazing smelling breakfast and spy on their conversations. We have to leave our windows open for airflow. The windows are even amazing. Sarah would like them too. And she would like this dog that keeps coming into this cafe and the cashier keeps saying, "Vai, vai" which means go, go. Awe.

The Duomo - I cannot forget the duomo. We saw it first at night - my first night here in fact. I was with my roommates and we were just wandering up this street thinking it would be a few more streets 'til we came upon it and then suddenly it just began to appear around the corner. Beautiful. Absolutely incredible. Again, my pictures. Darn.

And the Santa Croce. I live probably two minutes walk from the Santa Croce. I have serious plans to do all my homework sitting in the piaza overlooking it. Our first dinner was at this restaurant (where whatever I ordered was not what I wanted), but we sat outside, right next to the Piazza di Santa Croce. It was beautiful. The weather here is nice too. I don't miss humidity one single bit. I like the breeze and the shadows all the tall buildings make for the streets below that keep everything cooler.

La Vita é Bella