Andiamo in vacanza!

Ciao a tutto - hope you all are well and enjoying the beautiful season of autumn.

So far, autumn in Siena has been very similar to the many I've spent in Raleigh: colorful, cool, and chaotic! I had my first real exam in Italian today (as in, the first one that actually counts towards my final grade), and teachers in other classes have begun to talk of final projects. But right now (now that my big Italian exam is behind me!) all I can think about is the wonderful vacation I have ahead of me. Here's what I'll be up to from Oct. 31-Nov. 9:

Oct. 31 ~ Jamila and I leave for Napoli (Naples) in the afternoon and arrive later that evening. We are staying in a central hostel (in the safer part of town), and have been cued in to the various street smarts we need to use while we're there.

Nov. 1 ~ We'll be spending most of the morning and afternoon exploring Napoli, then heading to Sorrento later that day.

Nov. 2-6 ~ These days we'll be based in Sorrento in a lovely little family-owned bed and breakfast we found outside the city (google: Piano di Sorrento and you'll see the exact area - it's GORGEOUS!). During the day we are planning to make day trips to Pompei, the Amalfi Coast, Capri, Salerno, and other local beauties. Our goal is to see as much as we can while still maintaining a laid back approach to this vacation. I know that staying in one place will really be nice too, because then there's that element of feeling like you're returning to a temporary "home away from home." There's a chance we might make our way back up to Perugia on Thursday (a city in Umbria about an hour from Sansepolcro) since neither of us has seen it yet, but for now we're leaving that day/night open in case we want an extra down down south :)

Nov. 7-9 ~ Friday morning we will head via train to Arezzo and then grab a bus to Sansepolcro! Jamila hasn't been there yet, so it will be fun to show her around my favorite little nook in Tuscany and introduce her to Sara, Patrizio and i bambini. We are planning to just take it easy those last few days and enjoy visiting with the Falaschi family. Then on Sunday afternoon we'll head back to Siena and gear up for the second half of the semester that awaits!

In other news - there are many new pictures up on Picasa! Check them out!

That's all I have time for now I'm afraid. I'll update once I get back from vacation. Tanti baci!

Bekah