Recent Wanderings

     Where have the soles been lately? They have literally been all over the place with so many different people! Life has been an exciting blur of travel, food, seeing family, meeting new people, and new opportunities!

Sophie and I at the Colosseum!

     For a quick run-through, we had our week-long fall break at the end of October so I flew with Mara to Rome to meet up with my cousin Sophie! Sophie is studying in Florence so we met up with her and two of her friends, Monica and Emily to explore Rome. We absolutely loved it! It was so much fun and Rome is amazing! Such a beautiful city full of so much history! We went non-stop both days we were there and saw so many things!

In the Vatican Museum

    On Sunday, we took a train to Florence where Mara and I stayed in an apartment and explored the city on our own since Sophie needed to study. She met up with us and helped us find everything we needed. Sophie is a great Italian translator! We were able to understand a lot, since Italian and Spanish are so similar, but we could not speak to anyone without Sophie! She also saved us when we figured out that our phones could not make calls in Italy and let us borrow hers to communicate with the landlord of our apartment… We almost did not make it into the apartment the first night because we arrived so late! But it all worked out!

Florence is such a beautiful city!

     Sophie told us the things that were important to see and the places that had good gelato, and she sent us on our adventure while she attended classes! We found the Duomo the first day, and we spent almost the whole day there exploring the different parts of it. It is amazing! We climbed both the bell tower and the duomo dome to get gorgeous views of the city! We found some amazing gelato multiple times during our time there! We met up with Sophie later that evening and she showed us her school which was fun to compare to ours! We got to meet her adorable Italian host mom, who gave us some delicious biscotti…yes I'm still thinking about the biscotti…that is how good it was! 

Inside the Duomo, fantastic marble-work!

     The next day was full of art in the Uffizi Gallery. Overwhelming amounts of art actually! We were able to meet up with Sophie for dinner at her favorite restaurant, and it was so delicious and so fun to be able to have a dinner with my dear cousin! We laughed and told stories about our family. It was a wonderful time of family memories and super refreshing for me to be able to be with someone who knows me so well in the midst of all the change and new things!

     On that topic of being with people who know me well… After leaving Sophie in Florence and Mara in Venice, I met up with the two people who know me best in the world… Mom and Dad!!

So happy I got to spend time with these two!

     We spent four days in Barcelona going non-stop (They call it touring Analisa style)! We had such a great time seeing so much of that beautiful city! Churches, art, food, nature, music, more art, more food… I love that we got to share that time together! 

     On Sunday we took a train to Sevilla since I had classes on Monday. They spent a whole week here in Sevilla with me! It was so fun to be able to share my city and my home away from home with them! I got to show them the everyday things that do not usually make it into the pictures. They got to meet my host parents, which was so fun and cute to watch them bond! 

Sitting around the table, everyone speaking a nice mix of English and Spanish!

     Mom and Dad did so well with Spanish the whole time! Mom really impressed me with her Spanish, not only could she understand most everything, but she could also hold conversations with Chari, who speaks so quickly! I was their little tour guide all week, taking them to all my favorite places  and trying lots of new things with them as well! Flamenco, churches, gardens, shops, food, soccer, new neighborhoods, and more food. There is definitely a theme of food in this family! =) I just cannot get over how great it was to have them here! They came at the perfect time ! 

Love

     To end their time in Spain, they came with my school on an excursion to Ronda, which is a city on a hill, beautiful place! We toured the city with my professors and fellow classmates. It was an amazing trip! We got to see the oldest bull-fighting ring in Spain and had some breath-taking views from the many balconies overlooking the countryside surrounding Ronda. 

Ronda, city on a hill

     From Ronda, we traveled Analisa style again, and took a bus to Málaga just for the day to spend some time at the beach. Then the next night we took a bus to Granada to spend a day at the Alhambra. That night, Sunday, we took another bus back to Sevilla where we did some last minute sight-seeing and eating before they said goodbye and flew back to the States on Monday morning. It was quite the whirlwind but also relaxing and refreshing for me. It means so much to me that they understand my experience here! I've slowly been getting back into my normal routine now that they are gone, and am trying to take advantage of all the time I have left here… only one month! I cannot believe it! Off I go to experience as much of Spain as possible!