Ciao! Today was such a great day - we had nothing planned for class, so I organized a little trip myself to go horseback riding in Tuscany! My friend Julia helped plan it, and 4 other girls came with us. We found a trip that took us out to Tuscany to ride in the countryside for 2 hours, then a mini-tour and wine tasting at a castle, finishing with a wonderful lunch at a resort-like area where we could lounge by the pool. It was a much-needed relaxing day, and the group of girls who went were fun. My horse was pretty awesome - he was well-matched for me, he kept getting distracted and wanted to stop and eat everything, so it kept me laughing. Since he stopped so many times we'd have to gallop a little bit to catch up with everyone - so needless to say my bum is a little sore now haha. I got to take a lot of pretty pictures of the countryside - and then I accidentally dropped my camera. I knew there was no way I could get off the horse and get back on, and I was told if I dropped anything the group would not stop, so I was sad but I wasn't going to worry about it - but my friend Julia who turns out to be some kind of horseback riding extraordinare hopped of her horse and retrieved my camera for me, thank goodness! After that I put the camera up until I got off the horse...

The tour was a nice little trip too - Francesco was our guide the entire time, and he was very entertaining, as well as full of really cool information about the area. When we finally got to have lunch - it was one of the best lunches I've had. We had tons of pasta, bruschetta, and veggies. We could have stayed longer and gone swimming longer, but it was so hot all I wanted to do was get in the car that had AC and come home and take a cold shower. The heat has really been draining me, so when I got home and showered, I crawled into bed and tried to work on some schoolwork. I hate that I don't go do anything at night or explore anymore, but I've been feeling exhausted and like I'm going to passout lately, so I think right now, I'm just going to drink lots of water and head to sleep :) Love and Miss you all very much!!