bari, fiorenze, siena, assisi, barcelona, bank robbery

this weekend, andy, josh, and i took a road trip. on saturday we left early in the morning to go to a city called Bari which is about 3 hours south of Pescara. there we attended a youth conference/rally of about 400 young people. it was wonderful to see so many people worshiping together in a completely different language and culture. while i didn't understand much of what was going on, it was still beautiful. sometimes i forget that there are conferences like this in places other than america.
i am reminded again and again how small my view of the world is.

our first picture of the trip.. josh, andy, and me
this is the conference center. the decorations were great!

on sunday morning we left early again to go to florence! this was a bit of a change of plans, because we were only going to see siena and assisi on our road trip. it was a welcomed change, though :)
the drive seemed long, but i slept through much of it.

florence was full of people, small alleys, and hard-to-find parking. but once we parked, we got to see the famous Duomo, the tower, the baptistry, piazzas and other famous sites. we took a lot of pictures, but only went into the tower, where we climbed a whole lot of stairs to see a stunning view of the city. my asthma kicked in about halfway up, but i kept going. bad idea. did you know it's hard to climb stairs when you don't have hardly any air coming into your lungs? i looked soo pale when i got to the top! so we stayed at the top for a while so that my airway could open again :)
we even took some fun pictures. well, one in particular::

this is josh. don't worry, he didn't fall. :)
and here's the view from the top of the tower!

when we left florence, we headed for siena. we found our hotel easily, checked in, relaxed a bit, and then went out. we decided to just park in the center of the town, and just walk around to find a pizzeria. we wandered a bit and found the all-famous piazza::

and a clocktower with a really low clock...

so we ate dinner at a restaurant on the piazza. it was good pizza and good beer. a classic italian weekend meal :)::

cheers!

then we wandered the alleys for a while. we took some fun pictures, went down hidden staircases, and found some beautiful views. it was random, but definitely fun :)

where's the ceiling? where's the floor?!

the next morning, we went to see the inside of the duomo in siena - it was beautiful, too. we even saw people working on the floor of the church! i was overwhelmed by the art there.

why can't we have architecture like this in the states?

we left siena around lunchtime and headed over to Assisi. yep, like st. francis. he's the guy who said "preach the gospel at all times. when necessary, use words." assisi, though, is exactly what i picture when i think of italy. narrow streets, stone buildings, little friendly shops with flowers hanging outside of them.. it was incredible.

here we are in front of the basilica di san francesco (saint francis)

while we didn't spend a whole lot of time in assisi, we did get a walking tour of the perimeter while looking for the car :)

(josh and andy are trying their hardest to close the city gate. can you tell?)
goodbye assisi!

and we're back in pescara, safe and sound.
it was quite the weekend. we definitely fit in a lot of things, we saw so much incredible architecture, and i had a lot of time to think in the car. it was relaxing, refreshing, and overall it was good for my mind and for my soul.

next trip??
barcelona on the 27th :) and maybe (hopefully!) seeing amanda while i'm there!
i found plane tickets for a total of only 20 euros round trip, can you believe it?! i'm excited :)