3 weeks and dreading

I'm going to miss this...

I freak out more and more everyday as I realize that my days here are dwindling. I am doing everything I can to take it in, but I still can't imagine saying goodbye to my new home. But I'm trying to go everywhere I possibly can, and avoid sitting in the apartment at all times (even though I should probably be doing work). The last few days I have literally wandered the city for hours. I went to the Medici Chapels (which were really cool and very interesting), through every piazza, through the leather market and the little stores a million stores in an attempt to retain every last detail. This was my last official weekend in Florence... scary.

Seth comes to FIRENZE!

Thursday one of my best friends, Seth, came to visit me in Firenze. Last time he here it wasnt the best weeknd for either of us. He has had some pretty bad health problems while abroad and ended up in the hospital for hours during his weekend trip. On top of that, it was terrible weather & thats the weekend I got strep. This weekend was significantly better weather and we had a great time. Thursday night we went out to dinner to this hole in the wall that ended up being amazinggggg. My gnocchi literally melted in my mouth. YUM! Afterwards we went out with a big group of us to a few bars and overall had a great night. Friday a few of us went for an American style breakfast at The Diner and from there I dragged Seth all around the city. We spent the most time wandering throughout the entire Baboli Gardens. I never realized how ENORMOUS it was! I finally made it down to the famous pond at the bottom! Eventually we made it back to my apartment, relaxed and prepared ourselves to be absurdly full from dinner. We had super late dinner reservations so we went up to my favorite place in the world, Piazza Michelangelo obviously, and watched the sunset. From there we headed to Acqua Al Due, the place with the balsamic and blueberry steak... yummm. We decided in the process of ordering the dessert sampler there was no way we were making it out (aka food coma). We honestly made it through one 20 minute epsiode of How I Met Your Mother before passing out for the night. Saturday I honestly thought he was going to miss his train... we were not walking nearly fast enough and evetually we had to run in order for him to make it! Verrry close call

Hanging out in Baboli Gardens!

After dropping him off on Saturday I met up with Rachel and Julie. After wandering around for a long time with 0 success for lunch places (crowds EVERYWHERE!) we went to my favorite panini place! Any time I can get someone to go there, I go, I like it that much!  Julie and I spent the day literally going no where in particular, just strolling along. I did finally buy this little Firenze charm for my necklace I've been looking at. I'm running out of time to buy all these little knick knacks I've been waiting to get! Saturday night is the big night for the one club, but I reallyyy don't like it (too many italian creepers) so instead Jeff, Ben & I went out to a bunch of bars until finding one that wasn't packed with randos haha. Eventually we found a few kids in our program & we all headed to the secret bakery! The secret bakery is a late night bakery thats hidden in an alley... the guy opens up the door, asks what you want, shuts it and comes back out in a few minutes with whatever you asked for. The best part is when people are too loud, the neighbors dump water out the window! I probably wouldn't think its so funny if it was me who got water dumped on their head...

A garden we found during the art celebration!

Sunday, aka my last ever Sunday completely in Florence (tear), I (shockingly) wandered around Florence for a while. I went around with my roommate Jenna for a while to these little art galleries/displays because today was some big art celebration day! Jenna is a really talented artist herself, so I made her help me purchase a few little things to decorate my room! Plus, she binds her own books and they look amazing so shes going to make one for me! I'm so excited she honestly makes everything look so cool (I'm a little jealous of her artistic skills if you haven't noticed).

Now I'm just avoiding doing work but I suppose I shouldn't put it off any longer considering there's a huge MTV concert in Santa Croce Piazza Wednesday!! I believe its technically an awards show but Britney Spears, Shakira & some other Italian Artists are appartently all coming! I'm so excited!

A domani!

Beginning of the end... Siena, Venice, Cinque Terre, & Amalfi!

Climbing the Tower in Siena!

The week after spring break wasn’t anything special… I was mostly just waiting to find out when I would finally take my make-up exams (stupid strep…). After studying early in the week I find out I’m not taking them until the following week! So by the time the weekend came my plan was to study all the whole time, but unfortunately we had issues finding a good place to go. So instead of studying, Friday Steph and I spent the day wandering the city. It was a gorgeous day and we haven’t had a full day off just to explore (especially since on Sunday’s everything is closed). By the end of the day we decided it would be a great idea to watch the Parent Trap, aka Lindsey Lohan’s best movie.. what a classic

Saturday we took a day trip to Siena! Siena is very cute, I loved the huge square- Piazza del Campo , that everything hangs out in. We decided rather than going in all of the churches, we would just explore and do our own thing. We did however, do one touristy thing, we climbed the bell tower. By the way, not a good idea if you are really tall… definitely would bang your head the entire way haha

Gondola Rides =)

The next few days are a blur… a blur of studying, taking 2 midterms and writing an 8 page paper. It was terrible, but handing in that paper was one of the best feelings I have ever had! And even though I STILL have yet to get my exams back, my teacher told me I did very well on both so I’m happy! To make things even better, I met my parents after school on Thursday! A little bit of a struggle getting there (stupid Verizon not allowing me to get in touch with my parents), but it was worth it. Venice was beautiful and seeing my parents was great. We spent the next few days in Venice, wandering around by the water, going in a few museums and churches like the San Marco Basilica and the Doge’s Palace. The first night we stumbled into this tiny little place for dinner… ended up being one of my best meals while abroad! DELISH! We took a nice gondola ride & I got myself a carneval mask...it was a very successful weekend!

From Venice we traveled to Florence, where we spent the next few days. Food was definitely a major part of their visit. We went to amazing restaurants every night, especially in Florence! I finally went to the famous La Giostra and Il Latini… omg was I full. I cannot explain to you the amount food we ate over those few days, not that I’m complaining! Monday we spent the ENTIRE day SHOPPING =)! We started off at the Prada Oulet which was definitely a success. I even bought myself a Mui Mui wallet—my first big purchase aside from trips!  We went straight to the leather market after the outlet where I finally got my leather jackets! My dad got the belt he’s been talking about since he was last in Florence, and my mom got literally everyoneee presents that day! Skipped class to go shopping? Sounds pretty perfect to me!

At Piazza Michelangelo

Tuesday the fam went to Cinque Terre, and then we met up afterwards to wander around a bit and go to Il Latini. I can’t say this enough… SO MUCH DELICIOUS FOOD! Wednesday I was planning on just getting breakfast with my parents but we decided I didn’t spend enough time with them (since our trip was cut short due to my field trip on Friday) so I skipped my first class and we have a very productive morning! I took them up to my favorite spot, palazzo Michelangelo, then over to the Baboli gardens, wandered around for a bit until lastly we saw the famous For the Love of God, the diamond skull in Palazzo Vecchio Museum by Damien Hirst. It was sad to say goodbye, but I would see them a month later so it made it much easier.

At the Frescobaldi Winery

As they headed off to the Amalfi Coast, I had my Family Business field trip to the Frescobaldi winery (because yes, my teacher is one of the famous Frescobaldi’s) and one of their many estate/castles. The entire day consisted of about 15 minutes of learning about the winery, 2 hours of laying outside in the sun, and 1 hour of being fed really good food and free Frescobaldi wine. What a great day!

I decided to take a relaxing evening Friday night since Saturday morning I was off to Cinque Terre! Unfortunately, my chill night in got interrupted when my friend Ben was locked out of his apartment so I had to let him come crash on our couch. A few hours later (around 3:30 am) my doorbell rang again… I attempted to avoid getting up but no one else was opening the door... it was one of my roommates Steph who was hysterically crying. Apparently she got her bag ripped off of her and she walked home (really, really far) alone. To sum this story up, she got her keys stolen again, got in sooo much trouble with school (which is a little absurd considering she was mugged) and eventually her “punishment” is being kicked out of our apartment! She now has to live with (and pay to live there) with a young couple about 10 minutes away from our apartment. It sucks so much, thank god there’s only a month left (well not thank god, it’s terrible, but at least she’s not living there alone too long).

ANYWAY after that absurd night, I was off CINQUE TERRE! I was so excited because I was going with girls in my pledge class andddd it was supposed to be beautiful! And it was! We had so much fun! Saturday we did a really long hike from Venezia to Corniglia, almost 2 hours all up hill! The views were spectacular! It was so sunny out too, which made it that much better. After hiking around we sat on the beach watching a group of about 75 rowdy college kids. Of course we decided to become best friends with them and joined the beach party haha. We met up with them again that night at the one bar in Cinque Terre, but called it an early night… the sun is exhausting! Sunday we spent the day on the beach and wandering around, unfortunately it wasn’t as nice as it was the day before but still it was wonderful.

Reunion in Cinque Terre <3

The rest of the week we had a lot of work to do, which was really frustrating considering all we wanted to do was hang around Florence. Still, we had a good time, as always, exploring the streets of Florence and taking it in as we approach the end of our trip (the thought of which makes me want to cry). Thursday was our Italian exam, and as soon as that was done we headed towards the train station and AMALFI COAST here we come!!

The trip there was super easy, minus the sketchiness of Naples, and we were in Sorrento in a few short hours! I was surprisingly happy with our hotel, we had a really nice, clean room, and the boys were only a few doors down, plus it

Boat Ride Around CAPRI!

 included a relatively decent breakfast. Friday morning we woke up, bought us some wine for the day, and headed to Capri! Capri was awesome! We took a boat around the entire island & we saw the Blue, White, and Green grotto. We almost went swimming when we went into the Blue Grotto, but then we realized that when we would climb back into the boat we would definitely tip it over and all of our belongings would dump into the water…. It was probably for the best considering not one of us had a towel and the water was verrrry cold. The rest of the day we spent lounging on these huge rocks with a bout 30 other kids from Rome, Florence, and Barcelona and enjoying the gorgeous weather. It was a little windy, but it didn’t matter, we were still on the beach in Capri! That night we went to a really good seafood dinner & to a bar where all the American college kids go while visiting. We had a blast, so many of our friends were there, it was like one giant reunion!

Jumping off a cliff in POSITANO

Saturday was by far my favorite… POSITANO! Positano was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! We had a little delay going, aka the bus took FOREVERRRR to get to Sorrento! Luckily we are top-notch time wasters so we (aka the group of 15 of us) got some wine and hung out in the sun until our bus finally arrived! As soon as we got to Positano I literally RANNNN to the ocean (may or may not be because I was going to pee my pants) it was UNBELIEVABLE! SO blue and clear! A few minutes later a bunch of kids were getting ready to go cliff jumping, so again I ran across the beach to join then! We took a boat over to another part of the beach and began one of the coolest things I did while abroad. There were 3 different height options, so of course we started small, but after that first jump I was on an adrenaline high! The highest one was between 30-40 feet high! The scariest part was definitely climbing up to the get to the jumps… you are literally scaling a cliff (sorry Mom). The water was pretty cold but it didn’t matter, it was too much fun to even think about how cold it was!  When we came back to the beach to join the rest of our friends I found my three best friends here completely passed out asleep on the beach… but in the FUNNIEST positions… just take a look!

How I found my friends...(thats Steph under the blanket)

The rest of the day we hung out on the beach, wandered the town, and eventually attempted to find our way back to the bus station (aka going to the complete wrong way and having to walk about 30 minutes uphill to eventually find it). After waiting for the bus to come, we hopped on a bus that definitely wasn’t meant to take all 30 of us… meaning there was not a single empty seat and we all ended up standing for an hour on a hot crowded bus. Terrible. By the time we got home and grabbed some food it was about 10:30 and we were dead. Lauren, Steph , Jeff & I all fell asleep as soon as we hit our beds. THE BEST day!

Sunday we headed to Pompei to add a little culture to our trip! Definitely a lootttt bigger than I imagined. It was pretty cool, even though our tour guide was kind of a weirdo and definitely knew he weren’t listening to him. We realized as we were heading for the Naples train station that we would cut it VERY close to catch the next train for Florence, so when we got off the train from Pompei the 6 of us RAN to the ticket area and then RAN to the train… all while holding all of our bags. We literally made it with 2 minutes tops to spare. All I can say is… WINNING!

POMPEI

Now I’m back in Firenze and we are all freaking out realizing how few days we have left here, and on top of that how much work we have. The last thing we want to be doing on our last few weeks here is studying & writing papers, yuck.  I decided that everyday after class I’m doing something, even if that something is wandering around for 2 hours like I did on Monday. Today I decided that I was going to go for my usual routine… go on a run around the Arno and then hike up the Michelangelo & run back down.. its perfect. I get exercise and my favorite view of the city in one!

 Earlier today I did start my morning in an.. interesting way. Haha well I was walking to school as usual with Lauren and Jeff wearing Lauren’s shoes which are a little big on me, and they are pretty beat up… with that said about 5 minutes on our way to school the shoe snaps! So now I have one shoe, and one sock since Jeff was nice enough to lend me one of his. A few minutes later, SNAP the other one breaks… now I’m wearing both of Jeff’s socks walking to school basically bare foot. So I walk into class and 45 minutes or so in my teacher says we are going to take a little trip over to this one church… well I can’t exactly do that so she’s nice enough to let me leave class and tells me to go to H&M to get a pair of shoes. After awkwardly walking by  myself over to H&M to buy some shoes, I realize that it’s still closed! Now I have to sit outside for about 15 minutes by myself and barefoot and realize that every Italian is looking at me like there is something wrong with me. I run into the store when it finally opens, buy a pair of shoes real quick, and head back to school… only to realize that this pair is too big and are falling off my feet. AWESOME. Hahah whatever at least I had something on my feet at this point, right? Goooood times

This is my last weekend in Florence! I hate it!  But the weekend after I’m heading to CROATIA, which will be incredible, I’m so psyched! And after that Munich, Germany for Springfest! I have a crazy couple of weeks left until I’m America bound… okay I’ve got to get off the computer! Can’t waste any more time! Ciao!

FLORENCE, BARCELONA, & SPRING BREAK !!

Really, really long over due…

Well this goes back about… 2 ½ weeks? Dublin was wonderful as I said before, and the week after was pretty basic. Go to class, try not to fall asleep during very long lectures that I tend not to understand (stupid language barrier, or accent in this case), eat a ton, and go out. I was really looking forward to Thursday because my friends from Rome and Barcelona were coming in for Rachel’s birthday! The week or two leading up to that everyone was getting colds, nothing too terrible, mostly just annoying. I was feeling alright and my friends were there so I had to go see them… bad idea. At night we were at a club that I don’t usually go to, so I had no idea how to get back from so I ended up wandering the streets for an hour with my friends Sam and Seth until we finally made it back to my apartment. The next day I hung out in the morning with the girls in my pledge class to grab some BAGELS from a little hidden bakery! DELICIOUS! I miss them so much! Any way I knew I had to get back to the apartment to study for my upcoming midterms so I was planning on just meeting them for dinner that night… little did I know that a few short hours later strep throat would kick in and I would be in my bed for the next few days straight! It was pretty terrible. My roommates even tried to call the doctors that are supposed to do home visits but we couldn’t get a hold of anyone! The worst part was that I couldn’t talk so I couldn’t even explain what hurt when I finally got to the doctor (which wasn’t until the offices opened back up on MONDAY!!). I think he got the message though when he saw my throat. A few steroids and antibiotics later I was feeling much better. Unfortunately not better in time to take or even study for my first two midterms on Tuesday. Luckily my teachers were all really nice and I am able to take them later this week. Only downside is that now coming back from spring break I have those awesome exams to study for… woohoo!

At AFROJACK!

 By the end of the week I was feeling significantly better. I was able to take my other midterms, and Thursday we were off to BARCELONA!! It was an interesting experience considering I wasn’t able to drink and the night life in Barca is insane. Thursday we went to eat at a Tapas restaurant to take in some Spanish cuisine (minus some questionable fish dish) and prepared ourselves for AFROJACK! For those of you that don’t know, Afrojack is a crazy DJ who we all love. All of his mixes are so much fun to dance and jump around to its great. Going sober was a little weird, but hey I still was able to have a great time (minus some very pushy people). It was the ridiculous, and extremely sweaty, but overall I had a really good time. Although I do NOT know how everyone studying in Barcelona handles it… you don’t get home until about 6:30-7 am every night (well morning technically) and they go out 6 nights a week, aka they don’t sleep. But hey if you can do it more power to you. Friday we woke up at 10ish because it was my only day to sight see so we had to get in as much as possible! We started at the Sagrada Familia, the giant cathedral that Barcelona is famous for. Unfortunately the line was way over an hour long so we couldn’t go inside or we wouldn’t have been able to get to everything. After that we wandered to the Arc de Triumph where one of my roommates friends met us who is studying in Barcelona so she was able to help us navigate the rest of our day (EXTREMELY helpful!). From there we walked down Las   

   Ramblas, the most famous street in Barcelona and saw all of the very creepy people who dress up in costume and hold poses until you give them money (or they just try to scare you by jumping randomly, not cool). We stopped in their big market, La Boqueria which has the BEST fruit smoothies for 1 euro… if I lived there I would absolutely get one every single day! From there we saw the “baby” cathedral and some other gothic architecture. After wandering for a really, really long time we stopped at got lunch and they had eggs! It was glorious! In Italy they rarely have eggs so this was perfecttttt.

Guadi's Famous Lizard

Now the one place I REALLY wanted to go was Parc Guell, and as exhausted as we were at that point I forced everyone to go, and it was just as beautiful as I remembered. The entire park was designed by artist/architect Guadi, and he covered almost all of it in mosaic tiles. It’s unreal. At that point I was so content. I saw everything that I really wanted to, was standing looking at a beautiful view of Barcelona, and was picking Mike up from the airport in Rome the next day, everything was perfect.

I forgot to mention earlier that we didn’t book a hostel until pretty last minute so the four of us had to stay in a 8-mixed hostel. The first night was fine there were two couples in the room with us which was no big deal, but the second night there were two late 30’s- early 40 year old men in the room with us. I was planning on staying in that night but I felt uncomfortable being in the room alone with just those two men, so after going to a really pretty light show in Plaza Espana and getting a quick dinner I just went out with everyone… little did I know what that night would bring me.

Parc Guell

Again, being sober around all drunk people can be a little… strange? And slightly irritating. People kept changing their minds if they wanted to stay out, go home, and eventually after deciding to just stay out, our cab driver took us to the wrong place, the two people in the cab with my fell asleep and I was fighting with the cab driver in Spanish. It was awful. After getting kicked out of the cab because we refused to pay, two cabs, another argument, and a little wandering later, we finally found the club where all of our friends were. I was so annoyed at that point but as soon as I walked in I saw one of my good friends from middle school/high school who I haven’t seen in FOREVER! It was exactly what I needed to snap me back into a good mood. From that point on I just danced around and had a great night. I got to hang out with some of my friends from my pledge class too, which is always really nice. Around 5ish I was exhausted but no one wanted to leave so I just sucked it up and stayed for another hour until we finally left and headed towards the metro (because yes, the metro opens back up at 6 for people going to WORK & those of us coming home from clubs). 

So here’s were the problems really start… I have a flight to Rome Saturday morning to meet Mike that leaves at 10:20 with the gates closing at 9:50. By the time we get back to the hostel its 7am, and I was planning on waking up at 7:30ish just to make sure I had plenty of time. Well that didn’t exactly work… I woke up and went back to bed and woke up at 9:30!!! The airport in 20 minutes away so I got my stuff together, freaking out of course, ran outside and hauled a cab. I told him I had 20 minutes to get there and that I didn’t know which terminal I was at (stupid ryanair doesn’t tell you on your ticket). He tried calling for me but we couldn’t figure it out, so he ends up dropping me off at Terminal 1C, I have to turn around and sprint with my backpack to 1B, all while freaking out & crying and now profusely sweating, get special approval to pass right through, have a family tell me where to go, sprint to the front of security, without even putting my shoes back on I run through the airport searching for my gate, a woman at a store told me where to go and after the woman working there let me through in the last minute I MADE IT!!! It was the most stressful thing of my entire life. I wouldn’t have cared if it was just me getting back to Florence but I had to meet Mike and I was so worried I wasn’t going to make it that I even had my friend ready to pick him up from the train station and take care of him until I got there. I made it though so that’s all that matters… if this teaches you (and me) anything it's NEVER stay out until 7 am the night before a flight.

Finally in FLORENCE!!!

But this is where the good part starts… I made it Rome, got to the train station successfully, as did Mike and our spring break officially started! We headed to from Rome to Florence for the first few days and the weather was perfect. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. We got in at an awkward hour and were starvingggg so we went to my favorite Panini shop by school. YUMMM. After coming back and just relaxing for a while, recouping from Barcelona and the flight for him, we went to a restaurant one of his friends recommended and thus began our non-stop eating fest. There’s a club that people go to on Saturday nights that I personally am not a big fan of, but I figured Mike was only here once so we might as well go for a little while. Not gonna lie, we didn’t last very long. We danced around with my friends and had fun but we have the nights we both had just had, we were dying and came home and completely passed out.

Sunday we officially started exploring FLORENCE! Everything we did I haven’t done yet so it was just as exciting for me! We started at Santa Croce Church, which was beautiful. It might be my favorite church in Florence. After we went over to Palazzo Vecchio and went inside the museum to see “For the Love of God,” which is a piece currently in the museum by Damien Hirst. It’s a real skull covered in over 8,000 diamonds with human teeth. It’s worth over 100 million dollars! They only let a few people in the room, which is completely dark aside from the glowing skull. The only other person in the room with you is an armed guard! It was really cool though, especially because I did a project on him and focused on that piece. From Palazzo Vecchio we went over to the famous Duomo to find out that you can’t climb to the top on Sundays, so instead we just wandered to through the streets over to one of my favorite squares, Piazza Della Republica. Needed an excuse to eat more, we headed over to one of the best pizza by slice for lunch. We sat on the steps of the Duomo and ate probably the best piece of pizza I’ve had in Florence.

As exhausted as we were from walking around all day, we still headed over to the Uffizi Museum, which has the best collection of art in all of Italy. We looked like zombies going through but we were able to get in for free with my student museum pass so it was worth it. My friend Jason was visiting his girlfriend for spring break so for dinner we met up with them and went to Trattoria 13 Gobbi, another new restaurant for me. Since it was Sunday and most of my friends were away for spring break, the four of us just went to a bar, got some drinks & hung out for the rest of the night.

We made it to the top of the Duomo!

Monday was another full day of wandering around Florence. We went to the San Lorenzo (aka Leather) market, inside the central Mercado, and then went to climb the Duomo! I’ve been here for 2 months and this was the first time I did it! The view was incredible, and although those very old 480 steps were a little creepy, it was 100% worth it. I’m sure Mike’s favorite part of the trip was the next thing we did… went to Antico Noe, one of the best sandwich places in Florence. He didn’t stop talking about that sandwich the entire time he was here! They were really good though… I’ll probably go tomorrow (sorry Mike!). We took a little nap break at this point until we eventually made our way up to Piazzale Michelangelo! We walked all the way up to the church but they literally closed to the gates on us! So rude! After coming back we got ready to go to the best dinner I’ve had in Florence since I’ve been here… Acqua Al 2. This place is known for its blueberry steak (yes, blueberry). We went all out for dinner, appetizers, pasta sampler, and we split a blueberry and balsamic steak. I honestly don’t know which I like better they were amazing, and I don’t even like steak very much! We decided to stay in that night so we could wake up a little earlier and see the David!

Tuesday we went to another big lunch spot, The Oil Shoppe, and then headed over to Galleria Dell’Accademia where the David is. The rest of the Accademia is alright, but the David made it worth the visit. It’s just something you have to see. It’s unreal to think that someone chiseled away at a 16+ foot block of marble to create something so perfect. I personally think my stick figures and doodles match up pretty well so Michelangelo’s work but that’s just me…

We decided at this point we should make our way to the train station to head to Assisi! By the time we got there it was pretty late so we went to some dinner and spent the rest of the night watching movies and getting a good nights sleep before our exploration of Assisi!

View from the top of Assisi :)

We followed Rick Steve’s walking tour through Assisi, adding in the Rocca Maggiore, an old fortress that we climbed to the top of so we could see the whole town! We wandered around to see an old Roman Amphitheatre, San Rufino Basilica, Temple of Minerva (where they still have drains from bloody religious sacrifices!), the tiny old church of Santa Stefano, St. Clare’s Basilica, all the way down the most famous place in Assisi, Basilica of San Francesco. St. Francis is one of the patron saints of Italy and lived in Assisi. The Basilica is massive and beautiful, and extremely important in the Christian world. The entire day was fantastic, and it was such a change from anywhere I have visited so far.

Coliseum

Next stop, ROMAAA. This was actually my first visit to Rome! I was really excited to finally go, there was so much to do and to see. Wednesday night we stumbled into a super Italian hole in the wall for dinner… not nearly as good as any of our other meals which was surprising since usually those small places are the best. This bed and breakfast was different from the last one, instead of a little room for breakfast; they literally bring you a tray to your room. It was a little strange opening the door for the woman in our pajamas haha but hey it happens. That day we did the “Cesar Shuffle” as Rick Steve would put it. We started at the Coliseum where we bought a tour for both the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. As much as I appreciated learning about the Coliseum, the woman rambled on for so long before we finally went in! The tour was fine, but probably not needed (I’d rather just go watch Gladiator haha), but the worst part was after having a few minutes to wander on our own and take some pictures, we couldn’t find out next tour guide! We were supposed to meet the guy showing us to the Roman Forum right by the exit but he never showed! What a scam! Eventually our group got tired and searching and we just went over the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum ourselves. Luckily, I had my handy dandy Rick Steve book to guide us through and teach us about what we were seeing. The ruins were really cool especially when you stop and think that these were part of very important buildings in the greatest empire of all time over 2000 years ago. From there we continued on over the Pantheon, which is actually only a 2-minute walk from our B&B. 

Obviously we still had to continue eating everything we could (he was only there for a week, and I was providing “food support” by eating everything as well) so we looked up one of the highest recommended gelato places and headed that way. I have never seen a gelataria so packed before! After I got it I understood why! Not only was it amazing, they give you SO MUCH! I’m talking massive quantities of gelato and we got smalls! Not that I’m complaining …

That night we went to dinner at a place that the woman who owned the B&B recommended to us, Alla Rampa. It was of course delicious and I finallyyyy got some seafood! I missed it! Plus, it was right near the Spanish Steps so after dinner we walked over and explored a bit.

Treve Fountain!

Friday we went to the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s, which were both of course incredible. We took a tour of the Vatican, which was definitely the right decision, or else I would have no idea what I was looking at. Our tour guide was a girl from California too so there was never any confusion understanding her. I didn’t realize that they had Michelangelo come BACK to paint The Last Judgment when he was in his 60’s! Over 30 years after he painted the ceiling! I actually learned a lot from the tour, all of which was really interesting. After the Vatican we went over to climb the Dome at St. Peter’s, which is the highest building in all of Rome (and legally has to be so). I was surprised how updated the inside was, nothing like climbing the Duomo… As beautiful as the view was, I still like the view from the Duomo in Florence better (I’m a little biased I suppose). After wandering around St. Peter’s we were so tired that we just got some lunch and headed back to the room to pass out for a little bit. That night we met my friend Sam for apertivo (drinks and appetizer-type food)! It was so nice seeing her and a group of us just hanging out… I felt bad that Mike wasn’t able to meet any of my friends since everyone was traveling! We decided not to go out to another bar with them since he was flying out the next day, and I was heading back to Firenze, so instead we grabbed a slice of pizza and walked over the Trevi Fountain! It was so beautiful at night! Only downside, we got hustled (a little bit my fault…) by a guy taking pictures with his Polaroid camera… you can’t even see the fountain in the background! Oh well, that Rome for you. As much as I like it, I could not stand having someone always trying to hustle and scam me everywhere I go. No thanks!

Sadly, Saturday was the day we had to say goodbye =( which is always really sad. To make matters worse I have two stupid midterms hanging over my head! They haven’t even told me when I’m taking them! Urg.

Well that is officially everything! It was one of the BEST weeks of my life and definitely something I will always, always remember!

Ciao <3

A Weekend in Florence & DUBLIN

Forwarning.. I'm really behind blogging sooo this is going to be a long one. The week after Paris was pretty basic- random site visits and such but nothing outrageous. We went to Santa Maria Novella Church and the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum, both of which were pretty interesting but the tour guides (usually my teacher) kill me. They always know exactly what to say to put me to sleep. That Tuesday night there was a Dave Matthews coverband at one of the places we usually go, Red Garter, and considering most of the band was Italian they were surprisingly good.

Yummy Homemade CRUSTINIS

The best part about my week was without a doubt my Food and Culture field trip. We went to a family's house in the country and made a four course Italian meal from scratch! I chose to work on the gnocchi, but we also made three different types of crustinis for appetizers (eggplant, tomatoes, and roasted peppers), ravioli with spinach and riccata filling, some type of pork, and tirimisu for dessert. To say it was amazing is an understatement (even though I say that about pretty much everything I eat here). It was a really long process though.. at first I was having a great time but then I was just starving! And if you know me, I get grumpy when I'm hungry so those last 45 minutes or so before we were allowed to eat was a struggle.. but like I said it was definitely worth the wait.

As soon as we got back from our field trip we rushed home to change and then headed over to meet everyone at a bar by the Duomo to start the bar crawl tournement! My friends best friend who is also studying in Florence created a huge bar crawl with ridiculous rules you and tasks you had to complete in order to get points. Everyone was on a team of 8 and had to wear costumes (ours were chefs hats we bought on the street) and just to give you a few examples:
1. Have a football play in a bar
2. Write bar crawl 2011 in at least 3 bathrooms
3. Get behind a bar and make a drink
4. Request a song that has the word "American" in the title
5. Makeout with your coach on the steps of the Duomo
6. Changes everything but your socks and underwear with a teammate
7. Take a bodyshot off of another teammate
8. Piggyback a teammate the entire way around the Duomo
9. Start the cotton eye joe in a bar

TEAM CHEF'S HATS!

And the list goes on and on and continues to get even more insane, especially because there were twice as many people as usually (a TON of Barcelona visitors). It was a shit show but SO much fun. By the time it was 8:30 I was so beat we came home to take a nap and I didn't wake up until the next morning. Guess I needed a good nights sleep? haha either way it was one of the funniest things I've ever done and something we will definitely have to do again.

A few of my friends have to go to the little town of Fiesole (a 20 minute bus ride away) so we decided to take a quick trip because there is an incredible few from the very top that everyone has told us we have to see. Unfortunately it was really overcast, so we'll go again on another day, but it was still beautiful. You can see the entire city, although I forgot my glasses sooo it was a little harder to see some of the things that were farther away, oh well. Since Fiesole only took about an hour we decided to wander through the leather market and see if we could finally start our search for the perfect leather jacket. I tried on a few but no luck just yet, but I did buy a few presents and a cute little frame to put next to my bed so I would say it was still a successful trip. That night we went to dinner with almost everyone from the bar crawl at Dantes where the food is cheap (& delicious) they give us free wine which is reason enough for any college student to go. I was planning on going out but I was still in desperate need of relaxation so I took it easy and just hung in with a few roommates.

Sundays are one of my favorite days (even though everything is closed) because we sleep in, relax all day, and go to The Diner. We were surprisingly productive school-wise though so we weren't COMPLETE wastes all day...

At Temple Bar =)

Soon enough it was Monday and we were leaving for Dublin WEDNESDAY! (Side note: Monday was Valentines Day and I got some beautiful flowers from a certain someone :) )The week flew by and before I knew it, it was Wednesday and we were on our way to the airport! Traveling wasn't terrible, by the time we got there we were relaxed and ready to go! We stayed at Lauren's best friend Tom's apartment which was so much nicer then staying in a hostel. I feel so bad for him though, he is 1 of 6 kids in his program (they are literally foreign exchange students studying at a school in Dublin) and he lives in an apartment with them so its 4 girls and 2 guys, and the other guy is a little strange so he only hangs out with girls. I can't imagine having so few people studying abroad with me. Even the students in other programs are all girls. Luckily they are really nice, but still.. ONLY GIRLS? That's rough. We went out with a group of them each night, and Wednesday we went to this place Capers. They told us it was similar to a club here called Space, which is a pretty sketchy place so we were worried but it ended up being really cool... NOTHING like Space. It was all 90's music that you can sing along with and some fun Irish music. Everyone was really nice and friendly and THEY SPOKE ENGLISH! Ah what a nice break for the weekend! We all had so much fun and on top of it, Lauren found a fake leather jacket on the floor and after asking around and no one claiming it, she took it home and it fits great! Successsss

The three of us at Trinity College

Thursday we slept in which was wonderful, and when Tom got back from class he took us on a walking tour of  the area with his roommate Lindsey. We saw Trinity College, St. Patricks Cathedral, wandered along the Temple Bar area, into a few stores, and on the main streets (Gifton maybe? Can't remember what they were called exactly..) That night we went to the actual Temple Bar where I met up with one of the guys who came to Florence the weekend before and his friend. Such as small world that we were both in Dublin for the night! Irish pubs are a lot of fun... everyone is just loving life & listening to live music the whole time. Definitely the scene I was looking for that weekend.

Best Duo Ever

CLIFFS OF MOHER

The next morning we woke up super early to go on a daylong tour in Galway! Galway is what everyone thinks Ireland looks like... all green and country. It was really beautiful. It was an exhausting day though with all the traveling. We went on the tour mostly to just see the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs were the last thing we saw but it made the entire day worth it. They looked fake they were so beautiful. It's so crazy to know that I will probably never go there again in my life. We climbed up O'Brien's tower (very, very small haha) and saw the Atlantic Ocean from an even cooler view. Only downside- its SO windy and rainy at the Cliffs that at one point it felt like the rain was pelting me in the face (which it kind of was), but when I think of Ireland I always imagine it kind of gloomy so it was suiting. We decided that even though it was a long day, we only had a few days days in Dublin so we didn't want to stay in that night.  With that said, we went to another Irish pub with some more great live music like Wonderwall by Oasis, a personal favorite. We decided to go back to the bar we were at the night before because this really great duo was performing and everyone was right, they were amazing. I was having the BEST time just singing along & dancing to everything from Sweet Home Alabama to Living on Prayer...

at the Guiness factory!

Saturday we had another late wake up (I blame the fact that we were up til 5 watching THON) and did the Guiness Factory tour! Granted, I think Guiness is kind of gross and super heavy but the tour was cool and the bar at the very top it insane. You can see everything in the entire city all the way out to the ocean. Afterwards we stopped by the Jameson factory and tried a Jameson and hot chocolate.. ehhh not my favorite thing in the world but I had to try it. After we got burgers from Gourment Burgers, and obviously it was awesome and not just because I havent had a good burger in forever. It was off to buy souvenirs, some of which are presents sooo they won't be repeated here. Then back to nap (I missed my siestas)! That night we went back out for our last night in Dublin. We kept in an earlier night because of our flight the next day, but because of our awkward eating schedule we only ate one meal so that meant... MCDONALDS TIME! I couldn't tell you the last time I had McDonalds but it was awesome.  After our super classy dinner, THON at Penn State had already started so Lauren and I took over Tom's computer for a few hours and watched the live online broadcast and made it just in time for the Pep Rally! Perfect way to end our night!

Sunday we made it home in time for the last few hours of THON! I went over one of my best friends from schools apartments and the group of ASA's watched the end and literally screamed when they announced our total and the overall total! 9.5 million FTK! INCREDIBLE!!


As much as I love every city that I go to, it only makes me realize how much I love Florence. I am always ready to get back by the end... I definitely need to make the most of my time here and not travel every weekend because Florence itself is such an incredible city. Although we did plan two more weekends.. officially booked Barcelona for Afrojack and Munich for Springfest!!! I'm so pumped because those are two places I REALLY wanted to go! Everything is coming up so fast! I have my first midterm Thursday, then two Tuesday, two Wednesday, Barca Thursday and meeting Mike in Rome Saturday! So excited :)


Considering this took a very long time I should probaby go get some work done so I can go out... Ciao!

"We Make Party Three Time!" -- Paris

Paris was the most unreal weekend of my LIFE. Not kidding. But I'm a little far behind so lets bring it back a few days...

Last week was a normal week until Tuesday night rolled around. I usually go out on Tuesdays but wasn't feeling so hot (thank you fetticini alfredo-- at least we cooked it ourselves!) so I stayed in and watched some very cheesy movies that I'll refrain from stating to avoid being mocked in the future. Around 2:30ish am I hear "RING RING RING"-- our downstairs doorbell ringing. Hoping someone else would get it/that I was dreaming it, I stayed in bed until it got so annoying that I got up to buzz my friend in. Obviously the second I get back into bed my friend Steph buzzed our front door so I let her drunken self in and let her provide me with some entertainment for the next few minutes. She asked if my roommate Lauren was there, I said no until I realized there was a buzzing noise coming from the bathroom.. it sounded like a blow dryer? Apparently my friend likes to blow dry her body when she's cold and she passed out on the bathroom floor while doing so. I didn't even hear her come in! So Steph and I attempt to get Lauren to unlock the door (because yes, she locked herself in the bathroom), but she was completely passed out. Steph decides Lauren can "only understand Italian" so she starts scratching at the door saying, "Mi dispiace, mi dispiace." I wish I had my flip cam out because as tired as I was, it was still the funniest thing I had ever seen. Eventually we all went to bed, Lauren pealed herself off of the bathroom floor, and it all became just one hilarious story-- minus one small detail: Steph lost her keys (again) and her phone. The phone is no big deal but our school is very strict about losing keys and making the students pay for the locks to be changed themselves (which Lauren and Steph already had to do when they're stuff was stolen, and now Steph has to potentially do again-- by the way it costs about 300 euro).

The keys being lost has caused some drama in the apartment... long story short someone in our apartment told the administrator that she lost her keys and phone and now she is getting in a lot of trouble. If one more thing happens they are kicking her out of the program. It's RIDICULOUS! There has been some tension in the apartment now and it sucks but when it comes down to it, as much as you would hope that people treat you the same way that you treat them, more often than not, you are very dissappointed.

The Louvre!

ANYWAY... the rest of the week was nothing crazy we just spent our time doing out work and preparing for PARIS!! The trip to get to our hostel was a bit intense.. we had to walk to the train station, take a train to the Pisa Airport (that we thought we were going to miss...), take a plane to Paris, take a bus to the metro station, take a metro to our area, and wander around to find our hostel. It was a verrry busy day (considering it was after a day of classes).

I was really happy with our hostel. It had great rating/reviews so I wasn't too worried but it was pretty nice. We had 6 of us in one room, each of us had our own key card and our own locker, and we had a sink and mirror in our room.. oh and we each had our own outlet (we didn't have that in switzerland) which was sooo convenient. Plus, they had a bar, decent free breakfast, "club", and no curfew (still so surprised that some places have them but whatever). Overall I would say it was a success.

The 5 of us at the Notre Dame

SOOO Paris! I don't even know where to start! We did a very touristy (but great) day on Friday. We started off at the Notre Dame, headed off to the Louvre (went to my fav-- the Ancient Egypt section), down Champs Elysses (where my friend Justin bought his mom and sister each a Louie Vuitton wallet... after which I offered to adopt him), through the Arc De Triomphe, & eventually wandered the streets of Paris to find a place for lunch and ended up in this cute little restaurant that turned out to be AMAZING. We had a whole list of places/thing to eat from Steph's friend who studied abroad in Paris, so we ordered the "Croquet Madame" which is an opened faced toasted ham and cheese sandwich with an over easy egg on top. It was incredible!

Croquet Madame

That combined with splitting a bottle of wine for the table, we were feeling fantastic. Although we are still convinced they put something in our food because we were waaay too happy when we were leaving. After lunch we went to the BEST pastry shop I have ever been to. Her friend recommended it and we thought it would be a hole in the wall place but it was along the Champs Elysees so it was anything but. It was a little pricey but 100% worth it. They are said to have the best macaroons in Paris, and oh my god they were NOT lying. It was the best thing I have ever eaten... well actually it's tied with the chocolate praline thing I got from there. Everyone told us to eat everything we saw so we felt like it was necessary... which it definitely was. Post lunch we walked over to the Eiffel Tower at it was of course, incredible.

We went back to the hostel after that, it had been a very long day, and took a nice little siesta before getting up and ready to go out! We just ordered some food downstairs because by the time we were hungry it was really, really late, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised with their food. Anyway after a little pregame we went out to meet our friend Ben's friend. FAIL. Actually, fail is an understatement. It was a monstrosity. We were all having a good time but Ben was just waaay too drunk, he wasn't allowed in, and we ended up coming back to the hostel. It was really disappointing.. we were only in Paris for the weekend and the night was basically ruined. My friends went out in the hostel but I was too exhausted so I ended up passing out around 2:30 when they went downstairs.

BEST PASTRY EVER

The next day we were debating between going to Versailles and going to do our own thing. We ended up doing our own thing because Versailles would have taken the entire day (luckily I have already been so I didn't mind skipping it), and we really wanted to go to certain places, such as the Orsay Museum. Before we went to the Orsay we were on a HUNT for chocolate crossants! We of course found them, but fortunately/unfortunately there was a LOT of delicious looking food in there that it was impossible to only get a crossant! I ended up getting a quiche as well and as overly full as I felt afterwards, it was worth it to eat every last bite! Whatever, we walked all over the place! Next stop: the Orsay. It was a little upsetting, we weren't allowed to take pictures like you can in the Louvre! And most of the Monet pictures were currently in a different exhibit for the time being, but overall it was still awesome. It's so much more exciting when you are walking around and you recognize some of the paintings! I'm really happy we decided to go... after that we knew we wanted to wander over to the jewish quarter but we took our time to get to know some more parts of the city and found ourselves in a really cool vintage shop! The boys were actually the ones that wanted to go in so it was perfect... there is nothing worse than when you want to shop and you see the guys sulking and whining in the corner. Steph, Lauren and I all got really cool old sequin shirts. Very retro. We were looking for a cool souvenir from Paris that wasn't too cliche, and what's better than a one of a kind shirt? It was a great success!

                                                

My new best friends...

Our delicious falafel!

We did make it over the jewish quarter after a little more wandering and a brief stop in a PUPPY store! I wish I could say I'm kidding and I didn't actually spend a half an hour in a pet store playing with puppies/taking pictures but then I'd be lying. I don't regret a second of it! Puppies put you in the best mood... when we walked out of there we were all ecstatic!  After a tearful goodbye to the puppies (even got a picture of a baby pug for you Ash!) I got my very first falafel! It was SO good! Apparently there is a great falafel place in Florence that I have to find so I can get it again! (If you can't tell... the theme of this weekend, similar to my entire abroad experience, is food) Again, we thought it was imperative to nap before the rest of our night so we came back for a little while before our "Big, Fancy Dinner" later that night. After getting completely lost, we made it to the restaurant a half an hour late, but it wasn't a big deal. The rest of our party was already sitting down eating their first course, so we just hopped right in. The Onion soup (aka French onion soup, but obviously they don't need to say that it's French..) was awesome, and I even ventured out of my comfort zone and got DUCK! It was pretty good... not my favorite thing in the world but I'd recommend it. Unfortunately my friend Ben was too drunk (notice a theme here?) and didn't realize he underpaid by a pretty sufficient amount which turned into the rest of us paying extra since he was an idiot. Whatever, it happens, its done, but it was frustrating at the time since it was already a 30 euro a person meal. OH WELLLL When we left the restaurant we realized we were at one of the hightest points in Paris, the Sacre Couer, and it had the most amazing view. With christmas-type lights hanging everywhere, it looked like we walked onto a movie set. It was beautiful to say the least.

My attempt to play the bagpipes!

We got back REALLY late, but we figured, you know what? We are in PARIS! This is the last night we have to go out, WE ARE GOING OUT! We didn't end up leaving the hostel until 2:15 am (Mom, Dad, any other adult... remember, this is a judgement free zone and I'm not planning on leaving anything out...). We went to an area where we knew there were a bunch of bars, and just our luck, there was a bunch of Scottish people in kilts and their bagpipes wandering through the street! If you know any of my friends, well, we like to make more friends, especially those from other countries (although, not so much Italians... they creep us out). So we made friends with some Scots and decided to spend the next 45 minutes-ish dancing around the streets to the bagpipe music, and trying to play it ourselves. Bag pipes-- NOT easy! Actually they are extremely hard. We could make about one little noise if any. I have a much greater respect for anyone dressed in a kilt now that I know they can play those. Since we were clearly having so much fun, a group of 6 French girls and guys joined us and we all became fast friends. They obviousy knew where the bars were so we all wandered over to one particular bar that looked like a pub on top, but when you went downstairs it was like a mini techno rave! The pictures are all over the place because of the numerous strobe lights. What a success...

Best Group Ever :)

So the bar was closing at around 4:30 am, and our new French friends asked us if we wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower. Well it didn't take much convincing.. about 2 minutes later we were off! So now we are a group of 12 (don't worry we had our 3 guys friends with us) walking around Paris at 4:30 am to go to the Eiffel Tower! They must not have been thinking very straight, well obviously, but it was SOOO far. I don't mean I'm being a baby far, I mean walked for an hour far! As far as it was, it was totally worth it. I talked to a bunch of our new French friends along the way and we decided to teach them some of our phrases that we have been saying way too often like "Sorry for partying," and "Sucks to suck." Well they were just having a field day with those.. and as the title states-- they say "we make party" instead of we party/partying, the entire thing was just entertaining. When we got to the Eiffel Tower we layed down on the grass in one huge group and just loved life. It was around 5:30-5:45 am when we got there and so cold but it was honestly one of the coolest things I have ever done. When will I ever get to lay on the grass just staring at the Eiffel Tower again? Probably never. The metro started up again at 6 and we made our back to the hostel to end what will forever be known as one of the best nights of my entire life.

Laying on the grass looking at the Eiffel Tower at dusk!

Sunday was a nothing day... all traveling for the most part, and as un- American as it is, I was way too tired to watch the superbowl and I could care less haha we are all getting sick and it didn't start til 12:30 am here and the weren't even showing the commercials! What fun is the superbowl without the commercials?!

Now onto another week of classes.. first Italian exam Thursday! Eek! But that's okay because I found out that I only have midterms two days so I have a few extra days to travel somewhere ! Andddd Lauren and I did a work out video and went on a short run outside ahh I feel GREAT!

Ciao for now!

I heart Jillian Michaels

Actually thats a lie... she kicks my ass. The other day my roommate and I did one of her videos in our living room, and I'm still in a great deal of pain. Especially considering that before we went there we walked all around (mostly to find this specific gelato place...) and then up to the Palazzo Michelangelo (below).

 Its about 3 minute walk from my apartment, a tonnn of steep steps, but when you get to the top its the most gorgeous view of the city. It completely took my breath away, I can't wait to take everyone who comes to visit me there.

<-- with Steph at the Palazzo Michelangelo!

We went to Chianti on a free trip with school for yesterday morning/afternoon.. we went hiking around the town by the olive trees, a huge meadow, and a cute little  lake. It was beautiful. We had a tour around a castle where people still live.. which was freezing. Apparently they live there all year long without heat?? To each his own I guess haha. We got a free "tuscan style" lunch, which I tried all of aside from one thing (but to be fair they said it was liver and my friends made some bad faces while chewing it sooo.. not happening) and a wine tasting. It was a big step up from our 3 euro wine we've been drinking (although I'm a fan of my cheap wine). When giving us the tour our guide introduced us to this old man whose been working there for over 50 years and dresses like the hunter in Jumanji with the fellow in his hat. Minus the whole waking up at 8:30 on a day off, it was a great day.

    

                                                   --> CHIANTI!

Some of Lauren's friends from school are visiting from Rome, so we went & picked them up from the train station, wandered around, took them to our lovely gelato place, and I'm sat on the couch where I ended up staying for waaay too long. We were too tired to actually go out to dinner and we've finished all our leftovers but LUCKILY theres tihs place 1 minute from our apartment where you can go and order a pizza to go and omg it was FANTASTIC. Nothing better than eating amazing pizza in sweats in my own apartment :)




This past week I started to realize that I'm actually in school. We had to work on a presentation, went to the library for research for an 8 page paper, and had numerous homework assignments. May seem pretty silly, but I kept forgetting that's a big part (and the main part) of the reason I'm here. Probably doesn't help that I go on so many walking tours for my class (I love them most of the time but since I'm not in a classroom I forget that it's school!). Although, I did go on one tour in a perfume factory... WAY too many strong and different smells in one place. It was terrible. I didn't want to be rude and hold my nose, but god it was awful.

Other than that, classes have been good, & I'm finally getting into a regular routine which is so nice. We cook in our apartment all the time now because all the fresh veggies are so fresh and cheap! At least once a week we do a full out family dinner (To the left is our eggplant parm, salad, pasta, bread and wine from the other night :)! ) And we will probably do a another extended family (aka with the boys upstairs) again soon, which is so much fun. I couldn't be happier with our group of friends. We got so lucky with how it worked out.

Six of us are going to PARIS Thursday!! It's going to be such a good time! Its three of us in our apartment and three of the boys upstairs... and one of them speaks fluent French which is going to be SUCH a help. I'm so excited :) !

Time to continue figuring out my travel plans! Stupid field trips are getting in the way, urg. Ciao for nowww