Italia- we finally arrived and are literally living la dolce vita (the good life).

To those of you who have been impatiently waiting for a next post so as to follow my travels, I sincerely apologize. Since the moment we boarded our first plane in Birmingham things have been non-stop and all over the place. We finally arrived at Casa Cares Saturday evening just in time for dinner and I cannot even begin to explain the adventures we encountered just getting here. Oh man.

In emoji speak I would have to say it is the monkey covering his eyes paired with the blank face stare and then the sassy poodle.

I have so much to write, but our schedule is packed for a while and I want to make sure a get the words down perfectly, so that will take time. The wifi is extremely spotty here and of course everyone is trying to use it simultaneously which makes for even worse connections, so I will probably not write as often as I had intended.

I decided after we got off the plane in Rome that I wanted to take these next few weeks and disconnect myself from my life back in the states- except checking in with my family every few days so they know I have been sold into slavery. I want to immerse myself and not be tied to my electronics and technology like some many of the participants seem to be. There are people in our villa from all over the world (Germany, Bangladesh, Nigeria- to name a few) with varying backgrounds and degrees, so why not soak up everything I can during this time.

Personally, I am not a big picture taker but I know that several people back home would be up in arms if I didn't take a few, so here are some from our adventures thus far:

This is the view from our room in the villa. 

A bar in Lucca named after me! My name is very popular here. 

The UAB group in Pisa. There's a tower behind us that has a leaning problem. 

In the words of my distinguished program director and professor- "Damn, that thing leans".

Lucca has a wall around the entire city and towers throughout and this particular one was important for some reason that I cannot remember, but it has trees growing on the top so I thought it was cool. 

 I present to you the view from the tree tower. 

Lastly, there are random stencils/taggings around the cities on buildings and I thought this one was funny and profound. 

Those should hold you all over for now.  I will try to get something a little more intriguing in my next post. Whenever that will be.