Cousins Take on Italy!! (Part 1)

To top off our crazy and fun month of March was our ninth visitor. My cousin and one of my bestest friends, Lindsay, came to Italy for two weeks! We traveled all over and REALLY enjoyed our time together! Lindsay and I have always been very close and always find new ways we are so similar. It was so fun to travel together, we are good travel buddies! We were asked nearly everywhere we went if we were sisters, I had to learn the word for "cousin" in Italian to explain our relation.

First stop on Lindsay's Italian Vacation: Florence

It was so fun showing Lindsay all around Florence. We stayed in Florence for a few days, so she really got a good taste of our "normal" day-to-day life here. We even did a number of things that were new to me!

Here we are by the Ponte Vecchio.

And rubbing the snout of the "cinghiale," meaning wild boar. Now we will both come back to Florence.

J worked a lot with the team, but he was able to come out with us a few times. Here we are in front of Santa Croce church.

Lindsay even made it to the top of the Duomo, although it was "ify" there for a while. Lindsay is quite afraid of heights. At one point she turned to me with big tears in her eyes and said, "Leslie, I don't think I can do this." Sadly, I had to respond, "Well, you kind of have to. We can't turn around." I also felt bad every time she asked me if the worst was over... "well no Lindsay, we go higher and higher..."

BUT, She did it!! At the top, she definitely hugged the wall the whole time.

I did steer her around so we could as least have one picture of us with beautiful Florence.

After being at the top for all of about two minutes, she was ready to get down! I swear, I don't think anyone has ever run down from the top of the Duomo so fast! Look how happy she is to be going down!

Of course we had to take the standard elevator picture! Now, only 3 people makes the elevator seem spacious!

One of the things that J and I have gotten to be experts on is the food here in Florence. Yum!

Lindsay and I enjoyed this ginoumous tasting of pasta, and boy was it tasty!

We were able to take in a Fiorentina match while Lindsay was here. Here we are pre-game, showing our Fiorentina pride!

It was a fun game! Even more exciting because Fiorentina won!