Giovedì, 20 Aprile (Thursday)

This is a travel day for us. After breakfast, we checked out of our monastery in Venice, traveled to the mainland by boat, and transfered by motor coach to Florence, with a lunch stop along the way. Note: Italian highway stops are NOTHING like ours in the US.

Good Morning, We are on the bus leaving Venice, passing by buildings much taller than we are used to; the tallest buildings in Venice were seven short stories high, while now buildings are typical of urban areas. Though we are sad to leave Venice, with the wonderfully quiet and beautiful streets, Lucy and I were running out of tourist glass shops to wander through and I have seen plenty of beautiful bridges. This bus ride is nice because not only are we able to sit after walking an average of five hours a day, but the snow capped alps out the window are quite beautiful as well.

I had a great time visiting the Italian high school yesterday as well. I was so happy by the instant connections we made with the local high school students. Although we visited a school that focused on the arts, my particular tour guides seemed very excited about biology. While we toured the biology lab, they gave me a detailed description of an intestinal parasite they studied last year. (I was impressed that they knew the English words necessary to describe parasites!) We also bonded over a discussion of DNA structure and the various types of nucleotides in DNA and RNA.

Though so much else has happened, we will wait until we are home to share the rest. Otherwise, this simple blog post would be several pages long, Noelle and Lucy

Ryan n Jacob

CARPE DIEM

Today, we have boarded a bus headed for Florence. Every time we inquire about the length of our trip, the estimated time increases. I've come to understand, there is no world beyond this bus. Earlier I, Jacob, went out to the bridge near Accademia at sunrise to take photos. I was met by many other men with large cameras and weary eyes. We snapped until the bright daylight overflowed my lens. The glorious memory is just that, nothing more than a memory. The cold water washed my sense of wonder down the drain, then the bus wrapped me in lukewarm nothingness.

Lasciatemi mi Celeste - Ryan

Nechelle and Anahita

Yesterday, we went flashmobbing with a group of our friends to bless the streets of Venice with our angelic voices. Little did we know, however, that we would be greeted with one strange man who would change our lives forever. As we began "The Road Home" circled around a well in a tranquil courtyard, we caught the attention of a little girl infatuated with our harmonies, recording us with her iPad. As we sang on, we saw a man approaching us with his phone, and we were flattered to have yet another captivated fan filming us. But instead, he began circling around us blasting a live cover of House of The Rising Sun on YouTube in an attempt to distract us and test our abilities to simultaneously sing and watch a video. We were distraught and confused. "It's hard, isn't it?" the man said, his words still ringing in our ears to this day. He circled not once, not thrice, but twice. He encouragingly shouted at us, "you can do it," as if this was a skill that we desperately needed to develop as dedicated musicians. We burst out into laughter, and our song fell apart. But. Then our rattled voices united once again to end the song on a confident and solid chord, and as the man pranced away declaring his appreciation with our group with a kiss and a teary

"I love you," we realized, we could do it. So thank you, peculiar man on the streets of Venice, for teaching us that persistence and concentration are the key elements to not just musical, but personal success.

Hi everyone! Danny and Eric reporting in after three days in Venice. We are sad to be leaving the gorgeous city but new adventures arise. The past few days have been amazing, ranging from breaking into song in the middle of Venice streets, singing in the beautiful Saint Marco church, and joining the local high school for the morning and having a blast. The Italian students are so friendly and hysterical. They taught us a song/game about sardines and crocodiles. We learned how different/similar they are from us. Then we got to explore and shop. I loved looking in the shops at the art that people. I picked up a few Murano glass items for my family. Now to the streets of Florence!!!! J

One of my favorite things about Italy is the culture and all the activities in Venice have been great opportunities to view the history of Italy through all of the places such as the Jewish Ghetto and all of the magnificent churches. Having been to Europe before in different countries, I’m having a great time seeing differences and similarities between the locations. Eric Sumner and I have walked through multiple parts of Venice and visited dark alleys, a garden, and even a military base. While I’m excited for Florence, I wish we had more time to explore. Until next time!

We checked into our hotel, had free time for lunch and exploration, and then met up for an informal outdoor concert, dinner, and some of Florence's best gelato.

Hi everyone!!!

It's Nina and Molly!! Today we traveled to Florence by bus. We had a fun time with the back of the bus crew. Once in Florence, we went out for an afternoon of shopping. Katie and Isabella joined us as we walked to the market. The shop owners were very eager to convince us into buying things, one even said to me (Nina) "60% off for a spice girl". The four of us went into Prada, longchamp and had the most eventful experience in Gucci. We had looked around for about 1 minute with security guards eying us when one of us picked up a GUCCI perfume bottle and dropped it!! Don't worry, it didn't break but the guards were very concerned. We booked it out of there. We sang in the square, had a great dinner and some gelato. An overall entertaining day(((:

Love, Molly and Nina

Today for day five, we took quite a long drive.

We would like to issue a formal apology to our fans. We know we may have let you down yesterday with our lack of a blog. Tanner was in a gelato induced coma while Sydney was lost in the many stores of Venice. We believe a quick summary is in order. Yesterday we went to an Italian high school. Feel free to read Cal Neveu's post from yesterday for more detail. Today, Tanner started his day bright and early at 6 AM with Jacob for a sunrise photo mission while Sydney was sound asleep in her bed. After a breakfast consisting purely of carbs we hit the road for some adventures on the magnificent Italian highway system. We stopped at a very high end rest stop and stocked up on snacks, as one must do for a quality road trip. After driving through the scenic Italian Alps, we arrived in Firenze. After going to our hotel and getting settled, we travelled to the Duomo, in the center of the city. Tanner got some THICC PIZZA whilst Sydney ate some pasta after accompanying her friends to the Gucci store (not everyone made it into the store). Tanner and Sydney then rendezvoused when Sydney didn't want to climb the Duomo with her crew. They hit up some fine Florentine shops. Tanner got a record and had a delightful chat with one of the employees about music. Sydney got her feets nibbled on by some weird Asian fish. After some hearty lasagna for dinner, they returned to the hotel where they are now writing this blog. Ciao for today!

Love Tanner and Sydney <3

P.S. The keys at this hotel are attached to a metal rod with a golf ball on top. Just thought that was pretty neat. O.K. See you tomorrow probably.

Welcome back to the blog! Today has been hella chill. Not too long bus ride from Venice to Florence. It felt long er BECAUSE THEY TURNED THE WIFI OFF! Some people don't have international phone plans here ya know. So I slept instead. But not before singing a wonderful rendition of Come On Eileen. It was saddening to leave Venice but I was so hype for Florence. Venice was mostly tourists but Florence... I love it!! The shopping is fabulous. Definitely grabbing myself some birthday presents for myself while we're here. We also had a mini concert today in the square outside the Duomo. It's huge! I even climbed up the bell tower and I didn't die. That was pretty swell. But the coolest part was when the 6 o'clock bells started to ring as we were right underneath them in the tower. I've had lasagne twice today. Yummmmm. By the time I leave I'm so making Ben Wyatt proud and having a calzone. Tomorrow is going to be another awesome day. I don't think we'll have as much time for shopping, which is sad because I need some cool Italian clothes, but we're exploring which is a good substitute. Lucca is the town my grandfather served in during WWII so I can't wait to see the apartment where he lived. I have instructions to take a picture of a wall. ??? Confusing. But nevertheless I will! Let's hope my phone has enough storage. I've taken so many photos already. AND THE BEST PART so obviously I've taken bites of my friends' gelatos but I haven't had a lot to test fate BUT tonight our tour guide Daniel bought us gelato from the best place in town AND THEY HAD CHOCOLATE SORBETTO SCORE OF MY LIFE THANK YOU TOM BRADY yes, I was jumping off the walls. And I ate it all in less than 20 minutes. New record!! Now it's back to trying to send out snapchats on crappy wifi and not die from my runny nose. Countdown: 3 days till my birthday

Sumner. Out.

The rolling hills of Italian countryside are, in the words of Michael B., very fertile. He continues to insist Napoleon said it first, but we know that world history is all a conspiracy to make us believe generalizations about mankind and establishing lessons of morality and standards of policy and international interactions to follow. Ruby shaved her head today. It looks great. Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Shea. I did not remove your daughter's hair. Sincerely, 2(club 15)/3

This is Daniel, servant of the lord. Just kidding! It's emilizzle. We are on the party bus to Firenze, and I'm listening to earth wind & fire so I'm very content. Venice was litty and I have been writing down the funny things people are saying. Arjun thought the academia was called the macadamia. He is an American treasure who will surely take the world by storm. Yesterday we had a great time dancing in the hallways of our majestic hotel. I did the jig, and Michael M. flailed his arms. Here is some lyrics wisdom to be passed down to all: "Molly is a mossy bug"-Michael M. "Wormeo o wormeo, let down thy silk."- Libby