Bus Tour

Today NYU provided us with a free Red Line City Bus tour! Despite the blistering heat, it was very interesting and a great opportunity to be a tourist. For about an hour, the bus drove us around this small, but beautiful town. I wish I remembered more about the tour, but between the heat and the picture taking I just caught Gallileo, Medici, Machiavelli, and Michaelangelo's names repeating over and over again. 

I posted pictures on the Shutterfly site - I apologize for the yellow blur, it's from the from front plastic of the bus. There are several pictures though overlooking the entire city that come from a quite popular site called Michaelangelo's Square. I cannot even begin to describe how magnificent it is. If you ever find yourself in Florence - go there! It's so amazing to be able to see so much of the city and between the architecture, trees, river, and overall landscape, it's indescribable. 

In other news - it's still flippin hot here. For your information, Under the Tuscan Sun should really be followed by: How to Lose Weight by Simply Standing Outside. Between the walking and the sweating, I'm guessing most people here leave about half of their weight on the streets. Oh well - it's a small price to pay for such a beautiful place.

If you never see me in the States again . . . .

If you never see me in the States again, it's because I've fallen madly in love with Italy and decided never to leave. Just kidding - but really, it's beyond beautiful here. As the plane from Frankfurt finally floated above Italy (after almost 16 hours of travel) I couldn't help but smile. It seems that almost everywhere you go, whenever you are about to land somewhere, everything below looks about the same. I mean, yeah New York, it's more lights and fewer trees, but generally it's green, or patches of land and an airport. But Italy, you see the mountains that literally seem to reach up to the heavens and right next to them is the bluest water you've ever seen. For a girl from a landlocked state it's pretty darn exciting to get mountains AND water in the same package!

After an in-depth check-in process, I got to our apartment/off campus residence. There are 12 girls total, but I'm in a bedroom with just one other girl. We have big beautiful windows, a small porch, a tiny kitchen (with a washer in it!) and a few bathrooms. The apartment itself is pretty simple, but rather spacious and quaint. The best part is just what's outside. I can hardly believe I'm sitting on my computer looking out on a perfect blue sky, some random Italian apartment with beautiful flowers and a perfect breeze blowing through our brown shutters.

I'm posting pictures now. The only downside - my stomach is confused as hell about when I'm supposed to eat next, but I shall survive. After all, it's Italy - nothing could really be that bad. :)

For Pictures . . .

I'll be posting pics on Shutterfly.

Check out: sashalens.shutterfly.com

Here Goes Nothin!

Here I am, about 4 days away from take off to Europe. Hopefully this site will come in handy for updating whoever is interested about Italy and all my travels around the area. No promises on how often I'll write, but I will try my best.

See you on the other side!