Italy

Hi everyone!

Well, we had our first snow here, but I wasn't even here. My friend Dave and I travelled by train to Italy for 5 days. We started in Rome. I got to see more in Rome than I had 3 years ago, but there still wasn't enough time to see everything. We toured the Colosseum and Roman Forum, saw a bunch of Michelangelo's works including his Moses, Capitoline Hill, and of course the Sistine Chapel. We went through the Vatican and St. Peter's. It was great weather, and I enjoyed meeting other travelling students in the hostels we stayed at.

After Rome we went to Florence, which is a great city. We walked up to a chapel on the hill, with a great view of the city.

I went to the Boboli Gardens and walked around the expansive old landscape.

We also saw a great exhibit at the Uffizi gallery of Leonardo da Vinci's notes on everything he studied-anatomy, movement of water, his flying machine. It was incredible to see his genius.

Finally, we travelled to Venice and saw Venice by night. It is so unique with the canals! We enjoyed walking along small canals and crossing bridges and seeing St. Mark's square.

It was good to get back to Salzburg after all this travel. The train ride through the mountains freshly covered with snow was so beautiful. We went through some light snowfalls, and saw mountainsides of fir trees white with snow. Such a winter wonderland! The snow has almost all melted here, but I'm sure there will be more. I had a delicious dinner with my host family last night. My hausfrau roasted duck and we had with it Knudel (bread dumplings) and red cabbage.

I'm looking forward to Bible Study on thursday nights with a group of students from the English-speaking church here. When I'm with them I feel at home here.

Be blessed!
Liz