this past week was completely and utterly fabulous. seriously. p e r f e c t i o n. for those of you who were unaware, my super sweet (and handsome..shameless plug) boyfriend, chris, saved enough money to fly all the way across the atlantic ocean to see me, his joyously awaiting girlfriend, and travel around italy for the week. we squeezed as much traveling and sight seeing and eating into seven days as we could, and ran on little sleep and lots of laughter, something that seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life, i am aware.
we began the week with our backpacks packed and train tickets in hand. our destination: none other than the breathtakingly beautiful cinque terre. when we arrived in manarola, the city where our hostel was located, we were welcomed by gorgeous sunny weather, and a picturesque view of the sea lined with colorful little buildings and small wooden boats. in cinque terre we spent our days hiking the coast and surrounding mountains as well as exploring the little towns that speckled the aqua blue water, and our nights were spent eating gelato by the seaside and admiring the sun as is nestled its way into the belly of that great body of water. we both agreed that cinque terre just might in fact be one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen...
manarola.
our little town at night.
nearing the end of our four hour hike.
beautiful night.
on monday we returned to the city and began our florentine escapades. throughout the week we ran all over the place, and i played tour guide/historian as i word vomited our way through the historical streets of florence. we visited many of the "must see" places, as well as some of my favorite places in the city. some of which include visiting the duomo, climbing to the top of the duomo's tower, spending a lovely afternoon in the boboli gardens complete with italian picnic, and taking a beautiful walk through the outskirts of town to eventually end up at piazza michelangelo, where we saw the david (well, the fake one) and a gorgeous tuscan sunset. also in florence chris was able to experience a bit of my everyday life by eating at all my favorite places, taking the city bus to accompany me to the center where i volunteer at every tuesday, and he was also able to join my host family for our weekly dinner together, which was so much fun!
gusta pizza: best pizza in florence. hands down.
the duomo.
picnic in the park.
chris meets david.
on chris' final full day in italy we decided to take the train to assisi for the day to see st. francis' basilica. assisi turned out to be an adorable, quaint little town that reminded me of siena with its old country charm. the basilica was huge, and full of history and relics of st. francis. we were both very excited to be there and walk where he walked! saturday morning chris left for the states and i was left with tons of exciting and special memories shared with a very special person :)
the basilica of st. francis.
chris also happens to be a fantastic photographer and a blogger for point loma's admissions office. click here to check him out.
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