The past two days have been calm & unhurried. I spent most of my time in Heidi & Mark's apartment reading, writing and listening to music. As you can see from the pictures of their interior & sunset view, it is a beautiful place to do those things.

I have been thinking about perception quite a bit since I have been in Europe. The other night when I was in Firenze, I was sitting on my bed journaling and I looked out onto the facade of the Baptistry. The entire building is shrouded in green, white and rose colored marble. It is a beautiful structure. But the walls are also stained with ugly, sooty streaks coursing from the arches and window frames.

What is it I see when I look at it?

Do I see an exquisite creation? or do I see a dirty, old facade?

How do I choose to see?

Bella Italia

Ciao everyone,

Well this is my first blog entry (blog created courtesty of my awesome brother!) and so far it's purpose is to share a bit of my travels for any of you who want to follow along. So far it has been wonderful to be able to get away from the familiar in light of everything that has happened in the past month and a half. My friends Heidi & Mark have been amazing to me, opening up their home and lives to anything I want and need. I've had time to see and explore so many beautiful sites, but I have also had time to read and reflect as I try and figure out what life looks like now. I still face time in increments of days, not weeks or months...and I can handle a day. I am blessed to be able to come here, to this place, with these people while I am musing through all of this. Italy has such vivacity- ancient beauty, crazy drivers, "caio bella"'s called out, delicious food and wine, ugly graffiti, ultramarine sea, angry honking. I love it.

The first weekend I was here we went to Capri and it was everything you would imagine it to be. The other pictures are from my week in Napoli, our weekend in Tuscana and the last few days I had in Firenze by myself (the view of the Duomo is from my little hotel window-great view huh?). The pictures from the museums are mostly from the Archaeological Museum. I love it, they let you take pictures of almost anything as long as you don't have the flash on. Unfortunately some of my favorite pictures from Toscana can't be found on my memory card but I'm hoping I'll be able to recover them. Also, the one of the door looking out onto the balcony is literally the view from my bed at Heidi and Mark's flat. I hope you enjoy these! I miss you all.

Erin's first Europe blog

Hi Erin,

I created this blog for you to post journal entries, pics or whatever from your trip to share with your friends and family. It is really easy and fast to post on this site so don't be worried about this being to time consuming, I know you'd rather be out enjoying the EU. :)

Anyways, I just made this just in case you wanted to use it!!

-Bryan

P.S. Just delete this entry when you make your first entry. And as always email or call me if you need any help or have any questions!