Were Going to France!!!

Going skiing in the Alps is becoming one of my favorite things to do in Italy. This time that I went my friends Kelly and Kaley came with me to meet Alessandro and the Stucovitzs'. We all met in Milan then drove up to Courmayer together. Kaley decided she wanted to try snowboarding for the first time. haha. That was interesting. Kelly helped her and played ski instructor the whole time with Alessandro and I went off onto the mountain. Every time I have gone skiing it has always snowed a bunch which is awesome for powder. The first day we skiied at the ski resort and I skiied on a couloir for the first time. A couloir is a french word for passage and means a deep gorge or gully formation found on the side of a mountain. It was really cool. I felt like I could be in a ski video or something. haha. The second day we decided I was realy to take on Mont Blanc. The views from the top were amazing!!!! I felt like I was on top of the world (but really Europe). The snow and sun combined for a great day. Once we got home Alessandro thought it would be fun to go to France for an apres ski. We drove under Mont Blanc through a tunnel that takes 20 minutes to go to the cute town of Chamonix. Kaley, Kelly, and I were excited because this was our first time out of Italy since we got here. It was also interesting that you could drive to another county in less than 30 minutes. France was worth it! The last day in Courmayer we decided to try something different than skiing and ventured to the bunny hill with the little kids to go sledding. They probably thought these 20 years olds were wierd sledding next to them but we enjoyed ourself feeling like kids again. The weekend was so much fun we were all dredding going back to Florence to study for midterms.

see the little person, thats me skiing on Mont Blanc, it was a little scary

our sledding adventure



the city of Courmayer from Mont Blanc

"Piazza San Michelangelo"

One weekend I had the opportunity to stay in Florence. One lazy afternoon Jenna, my roomate, and I visited Piazza San Michelangelo. This is a popular tourist place in Florence that looks over the whole city. You have to climb this small mountain to get up there but the views are worth it! We spend 3 hours there sketching and watching the scenery. While Jenna was reading and I was sketching some tourists even stopped and would say, "look mom this girl is sketching." I was really impressed because I never think my sketches are that good. My design teacher, Julie, who taught me how to draw would have been proud. haha. That night my friend Mike who went to high school with me came into town from where he is studying in northern Italy. It was fun for me because I haven't seen him in a while and it gave me the opportunity to do the touristy stuff in Florence. We went and climbed the duomo, saw David and just walked around. It was a fun relaxing weekend.

Florence city at sunset. So beautiful!!!


Mike and I on the Ponte Vecchio.