So long Italy - it's been fun.

So, it's been awhile - whoops. Got pretty busy over here. Finished up with the International Peace and Security Institute; had the horrible experience of having to say goodbye to everybody (sad); caught up with Mom and Dad in Florence; travelled to Cinque Terre and hiked; went to Venice for a bit; off to Milan; and finally onto Portugal. It's been hectic to say the least. There has also been a fairly significant loss in my traveling life - Andre has decided to go adventuring on his own. He failed to let me know if this decision and somewhere between Cinque Terre and Venice, he took off on his own. I'm pretty sad about it as it has been a great 5 years of traveling together, spanning 19 countries and 6 continents. Andre, it's been great and you will definitely be missed. So catching up - we had our IPSI graduation at a vineyard outside of Bologna. It was a great night including heading to the outdoor club for one last night. I had already had to say goodbye to Katharine as she had a wedding in the UK to attend. I'm not very good at goodbyes and often just avoid them, but I had a quick goodbye to Kat at breakfast. Saturday's goodbyes got even tougher as they started and just wouldn't stop. Of course the goodbyes to Elisa (my roomate), Jake (who always kept me laughing and enjoyed Origami as much as me), Awa (who always spoke in hyperboles), Lee (my fellow Saskatoonian - what do you call people from Saskatoon?), Jason (who may love Waterton more then me) and many many others. It was sad. From Bologna, I was off to Florence to meet mom and dad. We spent the day wandering including going to see the David, PIazza Michealangelo and off course some window shopping. Next day we got up and took off to Cinque Terre. It is a wonderful little collection of towns, although I think I still prefer the Amalfi Coast. We hiked the 5 towns on the second day and were very thankful that we decided to start at Riomaggiore, rather then end there. Somewhere between Riomaggiore and Venice, Andre took off. That monkey just doesn't listen very well (I'm sorry Andre that I clearly didn't do a good head count). In Venice we stayed in this out of the way little hotel. However, I was sitting looking at some pictures after our second day and realised that the canal that our hotel was on is the canal pictured on the most recent edition of Lonely Planet. I tried to take a similar picture, but the lighting just wasn't quite right. Anyways, it was an amusing discovery. Venice was great including a concert of selections from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, a tour through St. Mark's, a trip to Moreno (an island famous for it's glass making) and, of course, a gondola ride. With a very hectic, very panicked trip, we finally made it to Milan with all of our belongings (I may have made a quick return trip to Venice and ran through the streets back to the hotel to retrieve something - although, again, not Andre). Milan was great, although short. Dad loved the Duomo and decided that it was his favourite of all the ones they had seen in Italy. We attempted to do some shopping, however, were generally unsuccessful. It wasn't a very long sleep last night as our flight to Lisbon left at 6:30am. But we arrived safe and sound and are just chilling for a bit now. It's much cooler here then in Italy and the breeze off the Atlantic is very welcome. Don't have definite plans yet, but will keep posted. PS PIctures to come - internet is being stupid.