Our phone was off the hook again (literally), so we woke up late and had to get dressed and packed very quickly. We grabbed some food and ate on the bus. On the way there I sight-read with some friends the Latin tune that began solfege. It was a few hours to Assisi where we toured the Basilica. We got lunch and shopped around there after the tour. Highlights were the panini (yes, that is the plural form in Italian), the water spout, and going to the top of the to...

I got to listen to Mark play the piano after breakfast. We began the day with a tour around the Academia. The light hit the David perfectly, and he was 16ft tall and weighed 12 tons. He was cooler than I thought he'd be. After that, we just toured the city and enjoyed the imorning weather before it got unbearably hot. Then, we went to Santa Maria Cathedral. Unfortunately, I prepared more for the heat than the cathedral, so I had to wear the huge blue tunic to cov...

The trip to Italy was very mountainous, so the roads were mostly bridges and tunnels. We left a little after sunrise, and every time we emerged from a tunnel, the new scenery was even more breathtaking than the last. Wow. I gave up taking pictures because I knew I couldn'ti capture it all. We finally got to Pisa where we were swarmed by venders. I was always told to be skeptical of these guys, but I soon learned how fun they were. I bought four items while we wer...

At 8:30, we drove off to Monaco. On the way, we stopped by a town called Eze at the famous Fragonard perfume factory. It takes 7,000 pounds of rose petals to make one liter of perfume. Very fancy. After that, we went to Monaco where we got lunch and explored. I think my sandwich had raw meat... We'll see. We saw the cathedral where Grace Kelly was married and buried and we also explored the nearby gardens. We came back to the hotel and went shopping. It was a lit...

We set off at 8:00am on a four hour bus ride from Avignon to Nice, a much more Italian town. We saw the Bay of Angels, our first glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea from the bus. We arrived at the hotel and changed into our swimsuits. After being trapped in the sketch stairwell, we walked to the beach and picked up a panini on the way. Rocks are not comfortable. It was ALL rocks. No sand at all. It was really weird. We went in, but it was a little cold and the rocks...