May 20th is a holiday in Carpi for the Patron Santo Bernadino so the schools are closed. Thus, Valentina (my host sister), Catertina, Kendall (the host student of Caterina), and I went by train (my first train ride!) to the city of Modena. It is only 15 minutes by train from Carpi and it is also a beautiful city! We saw beautiful buildings including the Duomo, a military acadamey, an art school, and countless others. We shopped, took many pictures and had pizza in the square. The best part was Kendall and I learning more Italian and Valentina and Catarina learning more English. They tried to make learning a little difficult for us by giving us words that are difficult to pronounce and this made them laugh because we spoke them terribly! They would laugh and laugh and so I then I used a bad word from the bad words my host dad has been teaching me (He doesn’t know much English but he can communicate well enough to teach my bad words in Italian). So I then used one of these bad words - pretending to be angry at their laughter - and it made them laugh even more. So, at least I can say bad words in Italian just perfectly! After an adventurous day we returned to Carpi to do homework and Lorenzo and I went to the grocery store to buy food so that I can cook dinner next Wednesday – wish me luck! We then went to the square later that night. I had an absolutely wonderful day with everything and everyone!
Over the weekend we then went to Tuscany – Pisa and Lucca. Both places were absolutley beautiful. We first went to Pissa and visited the Piazza dei Miracoli. We went inside the cathedral, baptisery, and up to the very top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. All the monuments were very insipiring and wonderful. We spent the afternoon Touring them and the surrounding area. We had a wonderful lunch in Pisa and then we had an also wonderful dinner at our bed and breakfast. The bed and breakfast was right out of a movie, it was so beautiful and it had the most wonderful view of Pisa from the mountainside. After our stay at bed and breakfast we then traaveled to Lucca – the city of 100 churches. But before actually touring the city we ate at a bar (a bar is a breakfast, gelateria, etc. in Italy – much different from the States I can assure you) for breakfast and I had a nutella crossiant – it was so incredibly good! Lucca was also a beautiful city and we toured, of course, some very elaborate and nice churches will we were there. We also went up on top of this tower that had trees growing from the top of it – it had a beautiful view of Tuscany, much like the Leaning Tower did.
I had a wonderful weekend with my host family and I truly could not have had a better time than I did. I cannot thank them enough for being so kind and for giving me such a great experience!
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