Exploring Genoa! Pictures galore.

Ciao ragazzi! 

It's day 4 here in Genoa, Italy, and the first day of my first weekend! We were up until four o'clock this morning (the rest of the girls were out clubbing and I was reading a book because I couldn't sleep - nerd alert), so we all slept in until almost 1 in the afternoon!! 

When I woke up, my roommate Sahar came into our bedroom to tell us that there was a 5.1 magnitude earthquake here this morning!! All I have to say about that is it was a good thing I was sleeping because earthquakes are one of my top two biggest fears (the other being tornadoes). If I had been awake when it happened, I probably would've dropped dead of a heart attack. 

After we got ready for the day, we decided to head out and explore unknown territory. So we set out through Old Genoa and started picking random side streets to follow. We ended up finding a beautiful palace/cathedral and a really gorgeous park along the way. 3 hours of walking!! I think in the past 4 days, I have walked a combined total of something like 15 hours! Sooo much walking!

Anyway, long story short, Natasha and I ended up getting lost trying to find our way back to Portofino, the area we live in. We ended up on the wrong side of the aquarium (the area of town where our Italian guide told us to avoid at all costs). Of course, neither of us speaks italian so we couldn't exactly ask anyone for directions. Eventually I caught a glimpse of something that looked familiar and WHAM! We popped out literally right next door to our apartment building. Haha. We were proud of ourselves for successfully finding our way home! 

I think tomorrow we are going to make a little group trip to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a group of colorful villages along the coast of Italy. Nobody owns cars there, from what our Italian advisor told us. You can only get there by foot or by ferry. So I think we're planning on taking a boat along the coast to see all the beautiful villages and maybe do a little hiking. Giulliana said that there is nothing more beautiful in the world than Cinque Terre, so I am really excited! I'll be sure to post lots of pictures when I get home. 

For now, enjoy the pictures I've taken in the past couple days! 

Natasha and I went to the supermarket and bought a bunch of food to eat, including this delicious Italian frozen pizza! A lot different from the frozen pizza back home.

While on our exploration, we found this beautiful park that wound up a huge hill, complete with caves and waterfalls and breathtaking views of the city.

This picture and the next picture are of an Italian public watercloset! Or bathroom, whichever you prefer. Anyway, I was so impressed by it!! Basically you push a green button and the door slides open for you. Then you go inside and the toilet is already running. You have 15 minutes to do your business. Motion-sensored water, soap, and air dry your hands. And then you push another button, the door slides open for you, and you step out. Then the watercloset cleans and sanitizes everything before the next person can go inside. GENIUS!!!

This picture was actually to send to Grady, but I decided to post it anyway because that palace is so beautiful!! 

We saw this guy yesterday. And then today we were walking and he was pretending to be a statue in the middle of the square! We watched him scare the crap out of quite a few passersby. He didn't have those awesome shoes on today though. Haha

Yeah, they sell octopus in the frozen food aisle here. *gag*

A beautiful arc we found in the center of New Genoa. I'm in the picture too! Waaaaaaaay down there at the bottom. See me?

The view from the terrace of our classroom. Simply beautiful!

Here's another picture of that arc we found. I don't know what it's called. But you can see a good chunk of Genoa stretching out into the hills behind it. The picture really doesn't do it justice. 

Thanks to anyone who is actually reading this! Grazie! 

See you all soon! Ciao!