Rome and Arezzo

Me at the Colosseum (no idea how They get pictures of these places without streetlights, cars, other buildings, etc, what with it being smack dab in the middle of a city)

Leah and Ryan looking over the countryside surrounding Arezzo. I think if you look close you can see the villa where we are staying... it's yellow and on top of a hill.

From the Fountain of Trevi to the Pantheon to the Tiber to the Colosseum and a dozen piazzas and markets in between, then the Vatican to the Sistine Chapel to the train station (and gelato stand) and we were away! We had a whirlwind of our two big days in Rome (almost all on foot) and are now in Arezzo, land of beautiful Tuscany vistas, delicious authentic Italian food and very steep hills. Arezzo is more than 2000 years old but still full of energy. We're staying with Ryan Smith, a VCU friend of ours, at the villa where he is taking a dance intensive in a tiny performing arts school called Accademia dell'Arte. We both tried grappa for the first time (!!! thinking of you dad and Popop), Leah ate what we're pretty sure was a sandwich of raw meat, and I tried wild boar (all tasty, some more surprisingly than others).
We're on to Florence tomorrow after breakfast and an EBAS (Elemental Body Alignment Session) with the students here.

Reykjavik, London, and Rome

We can't even begin to compress what's been going on onto this little screen but in short, internet is muy expensivo and rare, and British service personell are very chipper. Gelato is abundant and Italian Muzak consists of just one song. We haven't for more than four hours at a stretch in three days, (but we will tonight) and we just bought our first alcoholic beverages out of a vending machine!

We know that trips have their ups and down, and since we started on a pretty big down ( missed a flight by the skin of our teeth bc of a Reykjavik workers strike and spent an unexpected day in London, which tore our plans to shreds) hopefully now we're started on the way up! Tomorrow, the colliseum and pantheon, along with churches and a lot of walking!


(P.s. Affordable internet is much more sparse than expected and unfortunately therefore our posts will be as well.)