The sun goes down . . .

Another day at the beach. This time Alessandro took us to his very own "private beach".

Alessandro is quite the character. I want to say he's in his mid-30's, he has a wife and a blonde baby girl (his wife is French and blonde as well) Supposedly he was very happy when we called the first day; he has never had American's on his beach tours. We've learned that he's a strong swimmer and is in love with the ocean and absolutely adores Jack Johnson.

Today was another relaxing day on the beach. It's crazy how much you can take in when you're sitting on a beach just starring out at an open sea with nothing to look at but pure blue. It felt like a dream and it still does. The pictures I take do not do justice. This whole trip to Italy feels like it's been a dream. As I sat out on the beach I watched Alessandro in awe; he treats Danielle and I like princesses going out of his way to make sure that we're comfortable and have everything we need. He says we are stubborn because we're always trying to help him carry things to and from the car, it's funny... "we're not like Italian women" he claims. As we arrived to the beach he went on a mission to pick up all the garbage along the shore and swept away all the seaweed plants on the beach.. It was a little odd. After that he just dove into the ocean like it was a big pool. I admire how majority Italians have done this. I'm quite scared of the ocean and could never just dive in and swim to the deep blue part of the sea. I envy Alessandro and his ease into everything, almost like he doesn't have a care in the world besides Italy winning their soccer games.


Anyway, that completes our last full day in Sardegna. We made a nice family dinner and watched "Under the Tuscan sun". Cheesiest movie with horrible acting, but as we were watching we kept recognizing places we've been. For example once she steps off the tour bus, the main character arrives in front of the Duomo and it was in that moment I realized how much I am going to truly, miss Florence. As much as I hated that two mile walk to school, the heat, the sweat, the tourists, the hustle of businesses... I am sad that I won't be waking up to that. I am not anticipating getting off the plane and becoming a blubbery mess realizing I'm home. But I've missed home oh so much as well.. This Thursday is going to be heavy with emotions.

On a happier note, here's a picture of the sunset from last night (Monday):

 and here's some pictures of the beach I took today and a happy Italian song that I've learned to love :)

Our plan for tomorrow is to go to one last beach, the beach Americans call "The Painted Beach". It is gorgeous from the cliffs that we’ve driven on.  I don't think I'll be enjoying the water as much though because our flight leaves at 6:40 pm back to Pisa. Then we have to catch the Terrevision bus back to Florence which is an hour drive. We left our luggage at our internship we’ll catch a cab straight there and collect it and theeen.. well we don't really know. We're thinking about going out to eat somewhere close, have one last meal in Florece, the airport doesn't open until 5AM and our flight doesn't leave until 7:20 AM. sooo we're thinking about staying at a local bar/caffe until 2am and then catching a cab to camp out at the airport until it opens. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. Another night and another day in paradise, time to climb into bed.. Until I step foot on America... Ciao Ciao!

On an island in my bed . . .

Yes in my bed :( I woke up this morning in so much pain & agony. I believe the sun had drained all the energy out of me and the fact that I forgot to drink water yesterday added onto the Italy Vs England game at a local bar... learned my lesson, always hydrate! Anyway, spent the day inside today which kind of sucked but it was nice to give my skin a nice break from the warm Italian sun. And I didn't mind sleeping all day, felt really good and refreshed when I woke up.

This morning we had to switch from our guesthouse (due to an insect infestation) down the street to a local apartment which we consider an upgrade. 

Guesthouse:

New apartment: 

Since I have time on my hands from being sick I can give you an inside on our day trip to Parma and Modena (if I can remember)

I'm not quite sure what we did that Friday during the day but I do remember that Chef told us not to go out because of the drive to Parma... little did some of us listen. Our struggle bus took us to Parmiggiano Reggiano factory, (not as big as I imagined) in Parma, Italy. We had to wear plastic on our heads, a poncho over our clothes, plastic on our shoes and masks, pretty intense.

And that's how they make the famous Parmesan cheese! Next we went over to the families museum where we had a tasting of the cheese.

(Kari, Brynn and I .. it was bright)

(A mistress's castle built from a king)

Our next stop was the Parma known for their prosciutto.We met Stefano Fanti, a very well-known and he gave us a tour of how prosciutto is made in his factory

Most of the group, ready for the photo op! The two oldest people in this group picture are Alumnis. I thought this was really cool because I didn't know that WSU offers a study abroad program for Alumni to partake; I will definitely look into that once I'm graduated. 

(The mistress's castle is now a bed and breakfast)

Danielle and I. 

I don't remember the specific details that he told us. He has rooms on rooms on rooms filled with pig thighs. They hang there for months on end (I believe) and he does a stick test to see if the smell is perfect or something along those lines. The rooms smelt horrid of raw meat sitting there, the stench became unbearable. After the tour, his crew and himself set up a lunch for us with red wine, prosciutto of course, cheese and penne pasta. Stefano is a very busy man, he helped with serving our meal as well helping out his crew, he is very devoted.   

Our next stop was the town of Modena! Home of the balsamic vinegar: 

Our tour guide for this tour didn't show us exactly how it was made but led us to an attic where they store multiple barrels of balsamic vinegar to age that her family produces. It was a small attic but there was tons of barrels, maybe 100. The oldest barrel they had was from the 1800s. We had a tasting outside in their backyard of multiple, different balsamic vinegar. I bought 2 of them. I shipped them home a week ago and they made it safely to my house along with a extra dry virgin olive oil. I cannot wait to come home and start cooking all the things I've learned here.  

After Modena, we left and went back to Florence. I went out with the guys and we met some girls from Florida. There were about five of them that were extremely nice and tons of fun. The next day a few of us found a local flee-market that only happens on the last Sunday of every month. It has a bunch of knick-knacks and random gadgets that the local Florentines were selling. Here are a few shots of the market I took:

After the market we found some sort of festival which reminded me of the Puyallup fair-minus all the rides.

And that was Parma weekend... I finished this blog pretty late. Not sure if blogging is for me but it helps to keep track of the days and look back what I have done here in Italy. I cannot believe I have 2 full days left. It feels like just yesterday I was being followed by some creeper in Amsterdam. This was definitely the best decision of my life and I think everyone should live abroad at some point in theirs. Never get comfortable in your environment and learn how to live in a complete stranger’s shoes is truly gratifying.  Looking back, five years ago or even two, I never saw myself living in Italy or even thought about visiting Italy. I have learned so much and gained so much respect not only for Italians but for America and WSU too. This has been a life changing experience. I must go to bed; Alessandro is picking us up bright in early for our new adventures tomorrow! Ciao Ciao!