Week 9: A break in the middle of spring.

SPRINNNGGGG BREEAAAKKKKKK

Welcome to the Claire's Blog, Party Edition.  Well, if party means twelve cones of gelato in six days that is (RIP Austin).

Kanci and I stuck it out in Paris (I know, we must've been troopers to stay there of all places) an extra day before jetting off to Florence.  We spent a few days in Florence, charming all the street vendors (not really) and trying nearly every gelato shop (really) that we could before we left.  I had the experience of a lifetime when we went to a gelato shop right by our Air B'nB and I tried the mint gelato. Let me tell you, folks, this was the best mint anything I've ever had in my life. It tasted unbelievably fresh, like they had extracted the flavor from a mint leaf and stuck it right in the gelato. I liked it so much, in fact, that I made Kanci go back the next day, 40 minutes after we got gelato at another place, and got three scoops of just the mint flavor. In my defense, it was our last day in Florence, so it was then or never.

Our next stop was Rome, which was an incredible city and undoubtedly one of my favorites of the trip. History permeates every aspect of the city and the culture is something else.  We met up and stayed with one of my friends, Emily, who studies in Rome.  She gave us the local tour, which included a brief orientation with where all the sites were and also where the cat sanctuary was.  Kanci, of course, was riveted by the cat sanctuary, not because it was directly adjacent to the site where historians believe Julius Caesar died, but, well, because of the cats!  I myself am a dog person, but I have to say some of those cats were pretty darn cute! Anyways, we spent quite a bit of time there, but also managed to squeeze in the Colosseum, the Roman Forum (a favorite of mine!), the Vatican (another favorite, especially the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican Museum), the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and I could go on and on!!  We saw the sunset in Rome from the top of what the locals call "The Cake Topper", which is an enormous building in the center of Rome and actually named the Altare della Patria. It's a bit like our Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but the Italians don't like it because it was built by Mussolini, it's a bit over the top in their opinion, and they didn't really have the money to build it at the time.  All the same, it offered some incredible views of Rome!

Our last weekend of spring break was spent in Berlin where we met up with my brother, who had come to visit. The weather was unfortunately quite dreary; very cold, windy, and rainy.  So we went around to all the sites, but spent as much time indoors as we could.  All in all, though, an incredible week!