After my last post, we were waiting in line to go into the Academia where the "David" is housed, and none other than Cressie T. from GT comes up and says hi. It turns out the GT oxford program was in town. It was crazy seeing GT kids in Italy!! The David statue is much more impressive than I'd envisioned. there are copies of it all over town, including two large copies in prominent areas, but this one was honestly incredible (and I am not that big of an art fan in general). Talk about a good lookin' jewish boy ;-)

Well, I love Tuscany. Yesterday, after going to see the inside of the synagogue here in Florence, we took a train to Lucca, which is a town just about an hour from here. It is a small town, and we rented bikes for a few hours and just enjoyed riding around the area. We were going to get an early dinner and then come back to Florence when we decided to change plans. Pisa is just a 15 minute train ride from there, and though there is nothing in Pisa except the tower, we decided it'd be fun to go. We took off and went to Pisa, which is surprisingly REALLY cool. The tower of course leans, but it is quite a sight to see.

In the evening, we took a train back to Florence, and I went to the synagogue for services. there were a lot of tourists there, and honestly, I didn't see too many Italians. Even the sermon was in English. After services, the Chabad rabbi had everyone over for dinner, and it was a lot of fun. About 20 people ate there that night.

Today, we took a day trip to Sienna, another Tuscan town about an hour and a half from Florence. It was beautiful. I really liked the town, and it wasn't overrun with tourists. It had an amazing square, and a wonderful ambiance. We came back to town, and as we're walking through one of the markets, I hear "Bela!" and of course here, everyone says "Ciao Bella" or Bella whatever", and though at home, I turn because they'd obviously be talking to me, here I turned and then remembered I was in Italy, and kept walking. But then I heard "Bela, Bela, Bela", and I turn around, and Adam Eisenman, a friend from GT, was sitting at a cafe with some of his friends. It was soo random! but great to run into him too. Tonight, Miles and I are going to a town a half an hour away to hear a free concert of the Four Seasons. I'll post later on how that turns out

Love to all!