There might be times that you only feel like staying at home when it's freezing outside, with a covered sky which looks like storming out soon and as much fog that you wouldn't see a dragon standing just a metre in front of you. But not for us Erasmus students in Italy, nono! We are brave (or crazy) enough to face the low thermometers, climb on a coach and head straight for a day trip around the Apennine Mountains, specifically to the cities of San Marino and Urbino.

If there's one thing I absolutely love about Firenze, besides it's impressive buildings, churches and architecture in general, plus the centuries of art curation and it's food (I don't think there's anything related to the city of Firenze itself that I hate, aside from the absurd assignments at university) is that is located strategically right in the middle of Italy, so you can visit lots of places by bus or train which aren't further than 3 to 4 hours and head back home when it gets darker. This has allowed me to already visit places I wouldn't ever have visited in a regular 4-5 trip to Italy, like Perugia, Livorno, Prato or now, Urbino and San Marino. Small cities and historical city centers which aren't as known as Rome or Milán, but still worth the titanic efforts to arrive there.

While San Marino seemed to me a very lovely city (and country as well! Did you know it's one of the smallest and most ancient states in the world?) but I couldn't ever imagine myself living on a place like that. Too high, too cold, too nothingtodohere besides going for a coffee or have lunch on one of the main streets (there I had one of the BEST piadinas with ham E-V-E-R) and too inconvenient if you don't have a car of your own with which drive around and go to more populated areas. But still, a pretty and very interesting place, with amazing views and breathtaking surrounding landscape. On the other hand, Urbino resulted a bit bigger and lively from my point of view. We stumbled across a traditional sfilata with people parading in traditional Renaissance gowns which I couldn't do nothing else but stare amazed. As I read after, they were apparently a part of a cultural association which does historical recreations and parades as the court of Duca Federico. Those elaborated gowns and parade reminded me of Valencia and its traditional silk dresses, and how much work lies behind those seams. So, it was an interesting day trip around the Italian region of Umbria and surroundings, a bit freezing, but at least I was wearing my coat and rain booties with a couple pair of socks.

I was wearing:

Formul@ Joven grey coat
Bata rain booties
Louis Vuitton black scarf
Karen Millen sparkly bag
Hugo Boss wool skirt
Vintage gloves