So this is it, the blog I've been telling you all I'm going to write for ages and have finally gotten around to starting. For those of you interested enough to read it, it's the story of my year abroad in Italy, Spain and France, and will hopefully be full of lots of stories about my adventures!

As the title suggests, the past 2 weeks have been full of goodbyes, hellos and lots of yummy food. The goodbyes were a hundred times more difficult than I had anticipated, so much so that I went into a bit of self denial that I was leaving and left all packing until the morning I left, and all finding of accommodation until I actually got here. I cried like a baby as my Dad pulled away from the girls at 59 Hawthorn Terrace, then again at the airport departures, then again when my sister left Italy to catch her flight home. I also got incredibly sentimental about all things English, which was a great excuse for roast dinners and copious cups of tea.

The tears were soon replaced with smiles though, as I touched down in Venice with my sister and remembered why I love Italy. Venice is a gorgeous city, if you have never been then stop reading this blog and go and book a flight right now, you fall in love with the place the moment your plane approaches and you see the island from the sky. The best thing to do there is get lost, you never know what you might find, and it's an island, so you're never going to get really lost. We stumbled upon a gondola race (which I thought was just Venice rush hour traffic!), found the best croissants I have ever eaten in my life, and had bellinis in the city they were invented in. Of course we did all the touristy stuff too, but without falling into the traps: why pay for a gondola when you can take the vaporetto?

After Venice it was onwards to Cinque Terre, which proved to be more than worth the 7 hours of travelling and hefty fine I had to pay for getting the date wrong on the train tickets, well done me. We stayed in the town of Riomaggiore, which turned out to be (in our opinion) the nicest of the 5 towns (cinque terre). Riomaggiore would probably take the place of Baiardo (a little village in Liguria) in the prettiest place I have been in Italy, if it wasn't for the tourists. Mainly of the American kind who say 'grazi' and ask for fries with their pizza, you just don't do it! I did go for one of the most amazing runs of my life though (Anna I know you will appreciate this) along the coast in the Cinque Terre national park at sunset, it would have been even greater if everyone I passed hadn't stared at me as if I was crazy. The exercise certainly helped to burn off some of the even more yummy food we were enjoying, triofie al pesto (this is the place where pesto was invented), spaghetti al mare and more gelato!

Finally, after a lovely holiday, it was time to move on to my new home, Siena, Tuscany. I arrived to find that there was space for me to live in the student residence, which was a huge relief, and the city was coming alive with the beginning of the Palio festival. The Palio, a festival that has been celebrated in Siena since the 6th century (apparently), takes place twice every year, and is a huge festival culminating in an extremely fast horse race around the main square (Piazza del Campo), where the contrade (little neighbourhoods of the city) compete to be the best in the city. It is literally a matter of life or death for these people, one jockey died in a test race the day we arrived, and the people of Siena are extremely passionate about it. Although you have to wait a long while until the main race, it really is worth it, it was amazing to see the whole square packed in anticipation.

My sister left this morning, the day after the Palio, to return to England before I start at the University tomorrow morning. It was great to have her here for this first week, and made leaving for my year abroad feel more like a holiday than moving abroad for 17 months. It is strange being here on my own though, but in Italy, you're never on your own for long. For example, I was sitting in the park earlier, when Antonio Lanotte walked into my life and sat down beside me. Unfortunately for me, Antonio was not a 20-something Italian stallion, but a 70-something nonno (grandpa) with a belly built on a lifetime of pasta, but a lovely chap! He spoke to me for almost an hour about the 'belle donne' (beautiful women) he had seduced in his life and in his travels, and although this was quite strange, it was nice to have a chat, and it's all good Italian practice! Just when I was about to ask him if he had a nonna (grandma) who could teach me how to cook Italian food (something I am determined to learn while I'm here), he told me he was divorced, which he seemed to be quite ashamed about, divorce is still frowned upon among the strictly Catholic elderly population.

We passed some more time complaining about the tourists and making fun of them, which I am officially allowed to do now I am a citizen of Italy, I have an address and everything! Now I look at the tourists and think 'Hey, tourist, I can show you around, I LIVE here', (even though I really couldn't show them around, and would have very little clue if someone asked me directions!).

And that leaves me at the end of my first week in Italy, I start my course tomorrow, so hopefully I will make some more friends to add to Antonio! Ciao for now!

P.s Hayley, I've discovered the secret to the perfect Bruschetta, plenty of salt and LOTS of olive oil, I'm going to need to go for lots more runs this year!

xxx