More in Italy

So I am now in Florence. We just got in today. It was a change of plans because we realized we had planned a lot of time in Cinque Terre.
But, backing up first, I finished up in Rome with a day of going to the Vatican. We went through the museum to see the Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica. And let me just say it is HUGE! Everything you hear about Rome being huge is one hundred percent completely true! Its huge! Statues, pillars, everything: Huge!! I was kind of surprised as we walked through the Sistine Chapel because it wasnt what I expected. You are shoulder to shoulder with people in there, everyone craining their neck and looking up to see the ceiling. And then the guards all yelling, "NO PHOTOS." Kind of funny because everyone is just right out there flash and everything right in front of them. But... they do what they can I guess. In the Basilica, also absolutely humongous, hey have it all decked out. There is also a statue of Peter that has basically golden stubs for feet because people stand in lines to rub his foot (think the bull on Wall St). After that, we went into a neighborhood called the Trastevere, and this is the neighborhood that was my favorite. That and the part across the river from it that used to be the Jewish ghetto area. Its just a precious part of town. We were just wandering around, no real place to go for about 2 hours. Stopping in little shops, getting a gelato, and then we stumbled upon this plaza called the Campo de Fiori and it is my favorite place ever! (Maybe Plaza de Espana, that is in Sevilla, but its a tight competition. Hard to compare the two.) Its a plaza with restaurants and umbrellas and strands of lights and balconies with flowers and roofs with people eating and just amazingness all around. I just stood in the middle of the piazza turning around in a circle with a huge smile on my face taking it all in telling my friend, "Would you just look at where we are right now?!?!?"
The next day, she left for Paris and I left on a train to meet up with other friends in Cinque Terre. It is a national park north of Florence that has trails connecting 5 precious little towns that over look the ocean and vineyards and everything. Absolutely gorgeous! I liked it better than Greece definitely and Scotland too. All it was lacking was the waterfalls of Scotland, but it was absolutely stunning as you walked through these little towns in between your hike and saw laundry hanging out to dry, sunned on the rocks (kind of like turtles... there wasnt sand), jumped in the water. So much fun! We had a little apartment to our selves basically. It was awesome being able to cook and everything. The two other girls Im with are pretty much gourmet chefs so they just cooked away and we ate amazingly. (My contribution was the fruit salad haha)
We hiked the whole thing yesterday (we didnt rush or anything so it took us pretty much the whole day to hike it. And then we just sat under the stars on the rocks that night. One of the funnest things is talking to all of the random people along the way. Meeting people from all different countries. Fun fun!
Today we went to a little town between Cinque Terre and Florence called Lucca. It is a walled city that is again just precious. People riding bikes everywhere... gelaterias at every corner... just amazing!
So we arrived here in Florence tonight and just wandered a bit. Tomorrow we are planning and going to the Museum with the David statue in it. So Ive got to get going to bed, but I just wanted to give everyone an update. Hope you are all doing well!!! Home in a WEEK!

(Sorry there are no apostrophes in this entry. I have no idea how to get them on this keyboard... I tried to figure it out for about 5 minutes and finally gave up.)