Day 5: Spoleto

Wednesday, March 30th, 2016

I almost died of coughing last night. It was a sad tale of me staying up to 4am. Long story short, it was a late start to the day. Although shout out I Alec for bringing me breakfast. The first stop in the agenda was the Spoleto Duomo. 

Then we got gelato, and then we lost Alec. But don't worry, we found him again back at the hotel. "Remember when I said I'm going back to the hotel and I'll meet you there and then you came in 10 minutes later wondering where I went" -Alec Norelius, 3/31/16. Then we decided to drive up to the the old monastery in what we call the Druid forest. And then we hiked around looking for the grottos where Saint Anthony and Saint Francis are said to have hermitted. Then us ragazzi minus Grady hiked about an hour down the mountain, across the acquaduct and into Spoleto, stopping only for Celeste to take a pee in the woods.

 And to take this picture. Then we rested up for a while, before going back to Monte Falco for dinner with Alessandro at a real swanky joint. And more gelato, bien sure. 

- Cristiana

Day 4: Florence and Spoleto

Tuesday, March 29th, 2016

So today we got up at the crack of 7:30 and we were off by 8. We booked it to the Academia to see the David. Which was, you know, awesome. They also had an extensive collection of plaster molds which was really interesting to see. 

I forgot that marble statues were often made from plaster models. It just gave me an even greater appreciation for those artists. Then it was off to the duomo again, because we wanted to climb the dome! Except the line was crazy long so we climbed the bell tower instead. Which just about did me in. I seriously think it almost killed me. And at one point there was this grate right? You stood on it and could look about 5 stories down the bell tower. Well on the way up, Alec jumped on it. And then on the way down I was like, I should make the most of my time here, do whatever I can before we have to leave. And then I tried to jump in it. But then I was stopped with the explanation that I shouldn't do everything Alec does. I'm a lot salty about it and it's a real sore subject for me. Then it was back down for to see Santa Crochet and Galileo, Dante, and Michelangelo's  tombs, among others.  

Machiavelli's tomb

Rossini's tomb

Then we rushed to catch the shuttle back to our hotel, and on we went to Spoleto.on the way, we stopped at the near by town of Montefalco, where our good friend Alessandro lives. He gave us free gelato. Finally, we got to Spoleto. Right away, we were able to hop out of the car and walk around the town, and drink out of the fountains. (Side note- Celeste is not drinking the tap water. But she is drinking out of the fountains). We had a good dinner at La Peciarta of strangotzzi, a regional pasta. Yum! 

Ciao,

Cristiana 

Day 4

Italy is so beautiful. We climbed the bell tower of the duomo. Roughly 500 steps later, we were at the top and saw a perfect view of Florence. We also saw the statue of David (he's got the booty). We drove to a smaller town to meet the hawthorne's friends and for heavenly gelato (and Leonardo: Cristiana's lover). We finally made it to Spelado and had amazing regional pasta. We explored the hilly city on foot. After walking along the aqueduct, we had one more trip into town for some more gelato. 

~Celeste 

Keaton Vlog 3

Keaton Vlog 2

Cristiana Vlog 1

Day 3

Today we ventured out to see the leaning tower of piza and explored the city of Florence. Gelato is heaven. For the first time it was a problem that I'm 18, 17 and under got in the museum for free and I tried to pretend I was 17.... I did not succeed, the Italian man helping me was having none of it. It all turned out ok because the art was gorgeous. Keaton and I recreated some of our favs. Below is KEAT telling me (virgin Mary) I'm pregnant. 

Alec tried to be our photographer... This is what happened.

 Cristiana showed interesting in not metaphorically cuddling. We were all shocked. We then ate in the priority lounge of the hotel and hit the jacuzzi. 

Ciao, 

Celeste 

Day 3: Pisa and Florence

Monday, March 28th, 2016

Today we went to Pisa. And it just took us an unreasonably long amount of time to find the tower. (We forgot our GPS at home). But found it we did. And we took a lot of cliché classic Leaning Tower of Pisa pics.

Then we set off for Florence. It was a rather long 3 hour drive, but we all read, which you know, I enjoyed. In Florence, we hit the Duomo- 

Followed quickly by our first gelato of the trip. A serious crime, if you ask me... We should have been on at least gelato #14 if we had kept to my schedule. 6 gelatos a day. But we fell drastically behind schedule, to my chagrin. 

Then we hit up the Ufizzi (did I spell that right? Idk I apologize if I didn't) and saw the Botticelli's and DaVinci's. 

And we hit up Ponte Veccio.

Then it was back to the hotel for dinner in the Exec. lounge and then to the whirlpool which wasn't hot but we stayed in there for like, an hour and a half. All in all, another good day.

- Cristiana

Day 1 and 2

Keaton vlog 1

Day 2

We visited France, Monaco, and Italy! We drove through the rolling hills of Italy and Monaco. We stopped at a beach in Nice, France and collected sea glass from the shore. We kept ourselves busy in the car by discussing deep hypothetical questions and talking about our childhood. Shout-out to Comfort and B-rad for raising Keaton, she was a handful. We arrived at 9 and got authentic Italian pizza. After surviving on snacks and being awake for over 30 hours, we devoured the pizza and foccacia. We arrived back at the hotel and finally got a long needed sleep. Italy is beautiful; I'm so happy to be here. 

- Celeste

Day 2- 3 countries in 3 days

Sunday March 27, 2016

In some ways, yesterday was the most successful, and the most boring day of the trip. Most successful because we hit 3 countries- Italy, France and Mocaco! But most boring because we spent the whole day in the car. I personally, was very excited to send pictures of Keaton and I in France and Monaco to our French teacher, Mme. Caster. 

We did walk along the beach in Nice, after picking up Grady and Mom.

We did struggle to stay awake thought on the drive. 

The night ended at the lovely Green Park Resort outside of Pisa, and some great pizza, cursory of Umberto and Rodolfo.

- Cristiana

Day One- the flight lounge

Saturday, March 26th, 2016

While Keaton and Celeste went off exploring the airport, Alec, Dad and I wandered into the Delta Sky Lounge. 

Dad and Alec bonded over their shared interest of planes and plane graveyards and I felt a little out of my league trying to keep up with all the 74-whatevers and Boeing-thingys. And the infamous AIRBUSES! (But actually they both knew some cool factoids).

I sat there and actually got some callus done, and Alec jumped in the pic so that all the future generations seeing that photo would believe he'd been doing some homework. 

And then we emailed that pic to our math teacher. Yup. Both Alec and I did join the girls outside the lounge for a little while, and had a lovely misadventure together trying to find Cele and Keat at gate D47. Ya, D47 doesn't exist. They were at gate B47... That one's on Alec and I though- Celeste definitely texted us B47... Anyway. At 5:45, we headed to the gate, and all got on the flight. As I type, the 5 of us are en route to Milan! 

Signing off,

Crisitana 

Day 1- JFK Airport

Keaton and I decided to wander around JFK during our layover. We enjoy power smoothie bowls, fluffy juicy couture jackets, 

and endless samples of makeup and perfume. 

One beauty salon even had a fish aquarium in it! 

Around hour 4, the boredom started to creep in. We walked from one side of the airport to the other; trying to get some exercise in before the plane ride. 

After stocking up on airport snacks and trying on outrageous juicy couture track jackets, we sat and enjoyed books looking out into the sunshine.
-Celeste

On our way to Milan

After a nail biting wait in Mpls, we all made it all the flight to laguardia. Jfk was too full. We took an uber fro Lga to jfk and waited for our 6:36 flight. Now, we all on board headed to Milan. We chose Milan over Nice because their were more available seats. We will drive to nice to pick up Lisa and Grady when we land. 

Day One- Minneapolis, NYC

Saturday, March 26th, 2016

At 4:30, we're off to an early start. Problem is, flights were crazy full. Three fourths of Edina must have been at the airport. Luckily, the standby gods were watching us, and by some miracle all 5 of us, me, Dad, Alec, Keaton and Celeste all made it on a 7 o'clock flight to LaGuardia. Celeste and I even ended up next to each other in economy comfort. 

We passed the time chit-chatting and Celeste managed to sleep for a couple minutes. As did Kelly, who happened to be on the same flight as us, on the way to New York with her dad. Grady's friend Lizzy was on the flight as well. The JFK flight we were originally trying to get on has Gabe and Ben. I wasn't kidding about three fourths of Edina being there. The airport this morning was almost too social for Morning Cristiana. But the flight passed quickly. The one problem was that we ended up at the wrong New York airport to catch our flight to Milan.... So when we landed, it was time to Über off to JFK. We now have a 6 hour layover, and then hopefully off to Rome! So far, so good.

Ciao,

Cristiana