By some miracle my wind internet is working in the apartment again so now I can try to catch up with the lack of updates. I don't feel like my Sicily pictures fully explained what that trip was like, as those were only like 15 of the 80 pictures, but I do know you all have lives, so I won't overblog the experience. I would like to explain a little more though, that you didnt hear about.

Corleone is the third city we winded through via autobus (yes, for you Godfather buffs - Corleone) where our hotel was. The fields and the views were breathtaking. I felt like I was in an Italian trance. PLus side to bussing is how much of the countryside you are able to see and its really neat driving through the towns. These towns in Sicily are much smaller than Florence and appear poor as well. S staying in a hotel with friends was fun and we had a huge dinner that night with antipasti of salami, cheese, olives, bread with anchovies ( i tried them, but eh they are very salty), we each got a slice of pizza, and some pasta, and then they bring out breaded chicken and fries. Kind of odd. We were all very full. But thats nothing new here.

Saturday morning we were up really early. During breakfast we got a history on the Mafia and a current update from Professor Piombino. We then went to Cinesi to meet the brother of a guy named Peppino Impastoti who resisted the Mafia through public communication. It was intense. From there we went to Monreale where there is this really, really, really old Cathedral and cloister. There were cool mosaics there. Friends reported back that the cannolis were the best in the world, but Im not a big fan of those. I had gelato instead after lunch. I tried a different pizza than margherita! It was called norma and had eggplant on it. So good!

.After that we went to the site of te 1947 Mafia massacre on the farmers of the Albanian village. There were three survivors who recounted their stories. It was really heavy stuff. It was weird to contrast the gorgeous landscapes with that horrible event, and imagine these 80 something year old men as young farmers and little boys, and envisioning and being at the site of the massacre. We heard about the lives of their families and how poor they were, and the impact that the mafia had on their lives. The whole reason we went down to Sicily, well one we of them, was to join the current farmers and resistance movement against the mafia by helping the farmers in the fields. Many Italian students from Tuscany do this as a sign of resistance of the mafia, We met some Italians who were our age that were in Sicily to do this. They were very nice and I tried to speak Italian to them later that night when we saw some of them outside of a bar.

The guys who work on the farming cooperative that we were supposed to farm with offered to take us out for the night in Corleone so we accepted. We were all pretty tired, but wanted to see this aspect of the city since we are usually under an agenda and going from place to place on bus. It was very low key, smaller city, beautiful garden with large trees that we strolled through, and we passed restaurants and a kind of carnival looking area that was small. There was a candy stand and a white awning that looked like a spot where merchants might selll things during the day. The fashion of Corleone boys is even crazier than Florence. They all had those crazy hair cuts in crazy styles. We mostly tried to talk to the Italians from Florence and a few locals outside a bar, and ourselves.

Sunday, We had to be up at 6 to hit the road. We ate breakfast quickly and then went to the grape fields where we were supposed to form. It was gorgeous and the grapes looked so good. From there we headed to Palermo where we arrived to hot weather that I wasnt aware would be the case.We saw a bunch of old churches and building things that really don't have too much significance to talk about. We had a greasy lunch in Palermo at the second oldest restaurant in Italy called Antica Foccaceria San Francesco. They guy who owned it refused to pay the Mafia's protection fee and was therefore, literally, in mortal danger. He now has 5 Carabinieri - the equivalent of Secret Service - with him at all times to protect his life. The Mafia is still a big, big problem around here, and once again learning more about this was one of the coolest aspects of the trip.

Our train left at 4pm. We had sleeper cabins. It was a really cool experience to take a train along the Sicilian coast, I did some Italian homework, and we all hung out. In order to get the train to the mainland the broke the cars apart and put them on a ferry and rejoined them on the other side. I roomed with Emily and Maddie and was on the second bunk, and had a terrible nights sleep, but we made it back to Florence. The next 2 days were a little rough recooperating but then this week really shaped up and was a lot of fun.

I joined a gym that I hope I end up using more. More planning and figuring out of locations to go in November, and with who, and coordinating is coming together more. The trip Im most excited about besides fall break coming up in greece is going to Vienna and Salsburg in November. We are going to do the Sound of Music tour too, and Ive heard amazing things about Salsburg.

Tuesday night I went out to Lions Fountain with my roomate and some other friends. Its an Irish bar in Florence and they had the medals from the soccer tournament we played in 2 weeks ago. Cal. State Univ. were the champions. We went to another bar, and Twice for a little bit, but nothing more than that.

Wed. I got to see one of my mom's best friends and her husband. I met them at their hotel which was luckily only 10 min walk from school, and the three of us went out to dinner to an extremely nice and bonafide Tuscan restaurant called Cibrero. It was great to see them, and it felt extremely comfortable and I'm really glad we made it happen. I got home and studied for lmy Italian quiz, which I think I did well on.

I'm running out of steam with this long of post, as you probably are too, but I have to say that my best night in Florence was Thursday. Instead of going to bars, and discotechs, and seeing Americans, we went to this Piazza by school that has a little bar and we hung out there where many Italians usually are. My goal was to speak Italian with some locals and it happened by the end of the night. Before I knew it, I was speaking to 4 Italians/ Moroccans and we all played soccer in the piazza together. They have become our friends now and last night after I got back from the day trip tp Pisa and Lucca, Catherine and I hung out with Salah, Madi, Salah, and the name cant pronounce. They are very nice, and we went to a bar that had a lounge area and just talked. It was challening at times because their English was not the greatest except for one of them who did a lot of translating, but I also was forced to try much more italian. I loved it. It made me realize how much easier it has been for me to communicate with my host family since they speak English, but it was a great change of pace to be around Italians instead of all Syracuse students.

Pisa and Lucca were cool, but not my favorite cities of Italy.

Thanks for reading, if you hung in there with this super long post!!
BIIG hug, I miss ya'll but had a much better week in Florence :-)