Week one has come it a close!

Hello my beloved family and friends!  I can't believe week one is already over and I'm into week two of my adventure across the pond. I promised I'd keep a blog and let you know what I'm up to, and I've seriously slacked!  

So, there's no time like the present to begin :) lets just get the elephant kicked out of the room right off the bat- I don't expect you to actually read this, and will not be offended if you do not.  I'm going to try and keep a steady record of all the fascinating little details of my trip, but I do realize you're all busy  and what may be riveting to me (Tuscan medieval history, anyone?) is likely not so spellbinding to you.  So if you're interested, here you can find me. And if not, I'll be shoving photos in your face when I'm back, anyways.  Kidding...kind of.  Okay, formalities out of the way... I am currently writing you from Camogli, which is in the Genoa region of the Italian Riviera.

It's so refreshing here after the hustle of Florence and Venice, and even the quieter but more isolated streets of Volterra. The air is light and the water is warm, despite what the clouds may be devising (yep, first thing I did was put on my suit and get dominated by the waves of the Mediterranean!  They're ruthless, no joke)  Camogli is a slow paced, sleepy fishing town an hour north (by an even slower and sleepier train) of Cinque Terre.  I'm in love. Speaking of love, the food! Oh my, do I look forward to meals...although I've kind of always been that way, but now it's vino and pasta instead of chicken strips and ketchubbq (my childhood dipping sauce of choice).  Camogli is perfect.(I've shared my iPhone photos below, but y'all will have to wait for the camera goods till I'm back!)

And yes, I've definitely thought of being a pirate and stealing one of these charming little boats. It'd only take it for a spin!

The previous two nights we spent in Volterra, which is located in Tuscany.  Volterra was interesting and beautiful.  It's a walled city with architecture and human history dating back 3,000 years (that's before Jesus turned water into wine, for those who do math like me). The antiquity here is just mind blowing.  Everywhere you go in Volterra, you're treading on ancient cobblestone and gazing at fortress-like walls that have seen more of the world unfold than I can possibly fathom. It's a trip.  It's also haunted, I'm sure. No way it can't be, looking how it does and with that long of a history.  Yep, there were defiantly ghosts there.

Oh, and some pretty neat Roman ruins.

Speaking of haunted and creepy (although absolutely beautiful and amazing), Florence and Volterra are ancient enemy states and have hated one another since way before the Montagues and Capultes were little brain waves floating around in Shakespeare's head.  And Florence obviously had the muscle to dominate Volterra, despite the mammoth wall surrounding the entirety of the city. (That was my awkward segway into Florence, if you're wondering).  Check out the Duomo.

Or perhaps the Midci's castle in the middle of town (personally, I think they're vampires.  Look up their family history if you want to know why. They've been around FOREVER. And their house looks like a lair, for sure. It's the dark castle topping tower to the left)

AND they're have these terrifying (okay, or incredibly impressive and beautiful) statues guarding their door)

Or maybe the statue of David suites you better (lookin at you, Grandma ;)

Either way, we're now talking Florence.  The renaissance began in Florence, and was the birth place for all important art ever created- or so the Florentines will tell you.  But really, to be walking in the steps of Michealangelo, Voltaire, Da Vinci, Boticelli, to name drop a few, makes one truly wonder about their own potential- Michelangelo sculpted David when he was my age. No lie.

It's mind boggling all the greats that are from Italy (cough surname Sozzi cough). Really though, even in Venice we got to gaze up at the tower where Galileo studied the heavens. Pretty spectacular to say the least. (This is next to the tower, but my phone photo of he tower didn't turn out, so this is what you get :)

Venice was rad. I had my own apartment the first night, and we explored the islands around Venice

The Rialto bridge

And St Marks Square (Galileo's hood)

It was awesome.  Okay, this has gotten ridiculously long.  But I will leave you with one story.  I've only had one incident happen, and it was pretty surreal.  Nick and I, along with David and Allie McKay (married couple and owners of the photography academy Nick works for), and two more employees, Adam and Zachary, were walking along the Arno water front in Venice and we're looking at then Ponte Veccio (spell check?? I'm too tired) bridge when out of nowhere, I hear David yell Nick's name and then hurl himself, fist in the air, at a guy.  Well, David had watched as this guy walked up to Nick and I, casually acted like he was looking at the bridge, and went to stick his hand in my purse.  Luckily, I like to consider myself fairly intelligent, and I had everything zipped up with my hand on the zipper and he didn't get anything. Well, from me anyways. I was his second target, but fortunately he failed with his first as well, an older gal in our group.  Anyways David made contact, but the guy took off running regardless. David, thinking he had gotten into my purse, took off after him, and hot on this trail where then Nick, Adam, and Zachary. They didn't find the guy, but it was incredibly entertaining to watch.  Alls we'll that ends well, but we all learned a lot and are keeping our wits about us, and our spider sense on alert at all times.

Love you all!