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Venice, Florence, Milan, and Innsbruck

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PICTURES

Our final week in Europe was spent touring Tuscany and then a quick trip to Innsbruck, Austria (where the Winter Olympics have been held twice!)

We did a lot of hopping on trains and moving to and from hotels- so it wasn't my favorite leg of the trip just because we were on the go so much- but when you're in Italy, how can you even complain? 

I actually loved the long train rides because there were castle ruins near the alps, and beautiful scenery and it was just fabulous. I spent a lot of time being introspective and getting excited to come home. Because now that I'm home I feel great that I'm here and ready to move on to the next step in my life. 

Getting back to the trip:

Venice: Very pretty with all the water and gondolas. We went to St. Mark's square, then to Rialto bridge, and the next day we spent on Murano Island (close by Venice) where they make the famous glass sculptures and jewelery and things! I loved the island and I bought myself some great earrings. 

Florence: This place was really fun because we met up with Michael (my good friend from high school who is on study abroad with NYU in Florence). So we went through the town with him, and then he took us up to see his campus, which is gorgeous! I felt like it was something out of a Jane Austen book, with rolling hills, lots of statues, and flowers blooming all over :D Then the next day we went inside the Duomo, had some great gelato at Grom- seriously one of the best gelato we ever tasted over there, and we had a LOT of gelato! We saw Michelangelo's David, and went through the Uffizi Gallery- I had a lot of favorite paintings from that gallery- it reminded me of the Kunst Historisches Museum in Vienna, only smaller and just paintings. There sure are a lot of paintings of Madonna and Child over here in Europe. The key is finding one that you like! I had several favorites.

 The great thing about going to these galleries was that it was free! It was something like "Culture Week" in Italy, so we had free admission to basically every museum we went to. SCORE! 

Milan: My favorite of the three Italian cities we visited, this place was a bit more modern than the other two, and of course, there were amazing stores, like Luisa Spagnoli, which I loved but didn't end up buying anything. We went into La Scala, one of the world's premier opera houses (we were planning to go to a concert there, but it was cancelled due to the singer's illness). We saw the Duomo, which is my second favorite gothic cathedral after St. Vitus in Prague. And we went to a castle fortress of some Duke, and saw an unfinished Michelangelo Pieta. We walked through a beautiful park with lots of budding flowers and very green trees. 

Innsbruck: So Bavarian! It's got all the little Chalets, and its nestled up in the Alps, so it kind of felt like Provo, except in Austria... and basically I wished I could have spent way more time there. The train ride from Innsbruck back to Vienna was like a dream come true- I felt like I was in a fantasy land going through pastures of cows, and slopes, and the alps, and it was fantastic. 

Then we came home to Vienna, basically said our goodbyes, and packed up, and I was ready to fly out very early the next morning! 

Yay. A very successful study abroad trip, complete. 

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