flexibility is the best ability...

Or at least a good one to have especially while traveling!!!

This past Sunday, I was in Nice, France (which was absolutely beautiful...reminded me a bit of the coast of Southern cali :) ... sorry, I'm at a hostel right now and unable to upload pictures.) I had my first gelato in Europe here and it was A-mazing! So much so that I got another one after dinner later in the evening! haha Hey, all the walking and climbing stairs I think requires me to get one! Anyways, I was supposed to head out on a train to Cinque Terre, Italy but there was a French train strike!!! I guess I couldn't leave France without experiencing one of their many strikes ;P God was so good though and traveling with a friend who works for Air France, I was able to fly into Italy but had to fly into Florence, Italy so lost a day at the Cinque Terre. I later learned that the place I would have had to make my transfer was pretty unsafe so I'm thankful. I took a train up to Cinque Terre yesterday (google it and you'll see beautiful pictures of 5 coastal towns) Hence, cinque meaning five in italian. I'm learning some Italian! haha I would've stayed longer but made reservations for 2 museums in Florence today so headed out this morning...

I was supposed to leave on a 7:30am train to get into Florence in time for my 12:00pm reservation but the train was delayed 1.5 hours!! I admit, my heart started beating a little faster and I was about to go into panic mode as I thought 'Man! I could've slept longer!' but realized there wasn't much I could do about the situation so decided to just wait and ended up meeting a few nice people who were also waiting for the same train and had a nice conversation with them. (I'm cautious of who I have conversations with and pretty skeptical of people here but I was in a public area and my gut said they were ok :P)

I was able to change my reservation when I got into Florence (gave them my American puppy eyes :P) so saw the beautiful statue of David by Michelangelo in the Accademia and Borticelli's Birth of Venus among many other things! It's surreal at times to see paintings, sculptures and scenery with my very own eyes that I have only seen in pictures. I wasn't able to take pictures in these museusms so we may have to go back together next time! ;)

Tomorrow will be a nice change of pace as I take a wine tasting\cooking lesson tour. I think we're going to learn how to make pasta, so we'll see how it turns out!

I'll be heading to Siena, Italy for a night on Friday and then on to Rome for a few days on Saturday...please pray for protection and safety. I'm most nervous about traveling there but excited for all that I'll see! Hopefully no more major glitches, or minor ones for that matter... but learning to go with the flow and be flexible! ... things don't always go as 'planned'

Buona sera! (Good evening!)