STRANDED IN FLORENCE!

Today is Sunday the 19^th of December and I am writing from my hotel room in Florence, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, near the airport!  A huge snowstorm hit Florence Friday and everything shut down, even the San Lorenzo Market! It literally snowed from 10am until around 8pm that night! When I say it snowed all day i am not talked about wimpy delicate little flakes, I mean very heavy and thick packable snow! Now keep in mind that this is still Italy and its not the U.S. so the Chicago airport personnel wouldn't bat an eyelash at a few inches of snow, but Florence DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF A SNOW PLOW, so needless to say I am stuck here until farther notice.  The funny part is, the whether isn’t even bad anymore actually by sun up on Saturday the snow had actually started to melt. The reason the airport was closed was due to the fact that workers couldn’t get there!! With that, allow me to fill you in on how the past morning has gone for me...

My roommate and neighbors wanted to get to the airport EXTRA early because of the weather, so we loaded up a taxi just after 5am on Saturday. Upon arriving at the airport there was still no change to our flight, the screen read "On Time" while all the others had been canceled or delayed. Silly us for begin optimistic! I called home to let my mom know that there was no new information, when I looked up at the screen and saw the dreaded 8 letter word that would haunt me for the next 3days, "canceled".
Crying, frustrated sighs, shocked gasps, lots of angry cursing and complaining is what i heard for the next few hours at the Florence airport. I called Swiss Air with the hope of getting through to change my flight, but after being on hold for a 45 minuet international call, I gave up and went to get in line.

A few hundred college students mostly girls, waited anxiously in a line that hadn't moved in hours. The tiny little Florence airport was bursting at the seams and completely jammed with luggage and grumpy impatient college students who just wanted to get home. Now let me tell you the kicker to this whole situation, they had literally ONE EMPLOYEE working for Swiss Air trying to get a few hundred students rerouted, and even then he was busy working on Lufthansa group flight stuff which meant that non of us in line had gotten acknowledged in over 4 hours! NOT EXAGGERATING ON THE TIME LENGTH HERE PEOPLE!  After close to SIX HOURS in the front of the line, it was my turn. I got to the front of the line and had all my papers ready to hand to the man behind the counter when he switched seats with some woman who eventually preceded to tell me that this window was closed and that I had to go TO THE OTHER DESK FOR SWISS!! WTH!!?!? I promise you that for the past 6ish hours i had been the calm one of the group, the optimistic, go with the flow, not grumpy one! But at this point I broke down! They told me not to cry... like that was going to help! Finally the lady behind the  "Lufthansa" line took my passport and rerouted me, which literally only took 5 mins by the way! lol  I got a hotel voucher and directions to the shuttle bus to stay the night in Florence.

So now the plan is to leave at 7:50 (Sunday) for Zurich where ill have another over night layover! Ill update you on my progress when I can. I am just praying I can make it out of Florence because that will be a HUGE step in getting home.

SNOW IN THE HISTORIC CITY!

My last full day In Florence, I woke up early to meet two friends at the Ferragamo “Shoe” Museum. Such beautiful shoes and really neat museum set up! After that visit, I went back to the apartment to do a bit more packing and then I went out to get a few last minute gifts and return some European appliances that I had bought earlier in the semester.  One important thing to note is that Italians apparently do NOT know what a  “return policy!” is. I had gotten a straightner in September only because I was told i could come back in December and have it bought back. When I went in on Friday I was told by two different stores that they had bought to many back the night before so the owner wouldn’t allow them to take give any more refunds! IT DOESN’T WORK LIKE THAT PEOPLE! haha get with it Italians, how rude! So at this point in the day it’s of course was STILL snowing and I decided to walk over across town to the “mailboxes exc" to ship some of my olive oil.  After a long snowy walk I got there and of course it was closed till 330, how could I forget Italians take a LONG lunch break. However, I made the best of it, put my stress aside and went across the street to eat a HUGE Italian lunch! It was great and sat and watch everyone outside play in the snow and laughed as they tried to push their mopeds home in the snow! After lunch I went into the mail place and discovered that not only was the mail service NOT running but apparently the airport would be closed all night. So I went back to finish packing and check on my flight.

With t-minus 14 hours till I am scheduled to land in Chicago. The only major issue is the weather in Florence! Believe it or not, today Florence had one of the biggest snowstorms they have had in a very very long time! It was BEAUTIFUL but really unnerving considering were scheduled to fly out of Florence Airport in the morning.

counting down the days...

Amidst my procrastinating...
I realized just how little time I have left in Italy.

As of right now I have approx. 14 days and 20 hours (give or take the time change on the flight), before I touch down at O'Hare airport on the 18th of this month. What that means is that I have been in Italy for more then 95 days now!! Wow, where did the time go?! (Is it possible for time to go straight to your gut? Because if so that’s exactly where mine has gone, if you know what I mean?!? Well okay, maybe it wasn’t the time itself but more the carbs I ate during that time!) 

Allora, back to my main point…

Lately I have noticed myself blurting out this report to anyone who cares to here it, “There’s (X) number of days until I get home!!” Do I love Italy? Do I love traveling? Do I love Italians and am I abundantly grateful for the opportunities I have been given this year? ABSOLUTELY I am! But am I also ready to come home and see my family and friends, and to be apart of the communities at ISU and Fuel again? You bet cha! I really miss those good ole 50-minute classes at ISU! 

I cannot believe that I am already almost a junior in college. Time is flying by SOOO quickly, why on earth would I want to count down the days till my next big move? Why is it that I can’t just bask in the moment and love every minute of who I am, where I am, and who I am with right in this very second? Does counting down the days make the next exciting chapter of my life any more exciting or make it come any quicker? No, but what it does do is distract me from all the great things happening in this current place and time. 

I would be lying if I told you that I wasn’t overjoyed to come back to ISU and to join the Fuel House mission this spring.  I can’t wait for it to be January 1^st  but I still have 14 more days here in Italy. I need to take advantage of every last day here because who knows if I’ll ever come back, or “when” ill comeback I should say. Many people could never dream of having an opportunity like this and I feel ashamed to say that there have been moments when I have taken it for granted. So i am making it my goal to soak up as much European culture as I can in these last few weeks! This semester is something I will never forget and it has certainly made me appreciate many things in life. (look out for my "New Years" blog: coming soon!) I am thankful to God for protecting me along my journey and for opening up new doors in my life. I am thankful to my family for their support and encouragement and I am thankful to my friends for being excited for me and for looking forward to my return home. I am thankful for the people I have met throughout this semester along the way and for the teachers here who are so loving and compassionate.  I have SOOO many wonderful things to look forward to in the next few months, and the next few years even! As hard as it will be to leave this place, I am thankful to be going home. I can not wait to see what more the Lord has in store for my life and the lives of people i come into contact with this next semester!
Leaving this place will be the definition of “bitter sweet”.

I’ll leave you with this statement…
Time sure does fly when your having fun!

Christmas Markets in Munich - A Winter Wonderland

Frohe Weihnachten!! 
That means Merry Christmas in German! 

The count down continues and Christmas is now only 26 days away, which means that I have less then 19 days left here in Italy! I am trying to take in every last bit of Europe that I can without going completely broke! I have seen England, Ireland, France, and Italy and it only seemed appropriate that I visit Germany since that’s where my relatives are from! So that’s exactly what I did this past weekend to celebrate the Holidays!

 

Munich Germany was my last major trip of the semester. A friend in my religions class invited me to go earlier in the semester and so I spent 3days in Germany with 8 girls I didn't know at all before  that! I arrived by myself in the snow covered and very cold Germany and fell in love with the culture immediately! Here are a few Highlights pictures from the trip! I'll blog a little more about the weekend tomorrow!

 

I LOVED Munich, Germany. It was great experience, I got to know some amazing girls, I played and sang carols in the snow and i bought some GREAT Christmas stuff! I will definitely be going back to Munich during the Holiday season again someday!! It was a beautiful winter wonderland!

Thankful to be Abroad

Some words to describe my Thanksgiving this year would be; tasty, interesting, different, strange, filling, surprising, diverse, exciting, random, novice and most of all, memorable.

It was a nice holiday away from home. Thanks to a gal in one of my classes, I even had a full thanksgiving meal! She made a 14-pound turkey, gravy, green beans, chocolate pie and sweet potato fries. I brought the mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, and two beautifully inedible pumpkin pies! (My friend forgot to add the sugar!) I even cooked the first pie in my little tabletop oven! It was like baking thanksgiving desert in a grownup version of the “Easy Bake Oven”! It came out beautifully and I was so proud of myself for baking my first pumpkin pie to perfection, all by myself! But then we taste it… Opps! Won’t make that mistake again! A few people said they didn’t mind the taste of it when it was covered in homemade whip cream though! So a few slices got eating, believe it or not! They were such troopers! There were about 10 of us at the Thanksgiving meal Thursday and I only knew a handful of the people. It was interesting eating Thanksgiving dinner with people I hardly knew, but we were all able to go around the room and say what we were thankful for. I believe we had a very wide range of U.S. states represented that night. Indiana, Florida, Ohio, New York, Arkansas, Hawaii, California, and Washington I think.  I got my fill of turkey, mash potatoes, and deviled eggs so I was a happy camper! 
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

Grocery Shopping at the Market… always an experience

The result of my random adventures at the San Lorenzo Market!

I went to the San Lorenzo Market Tuesday after cooking class to pick up some fresh vegetables. I wandered around the market stopping at each stand to check out the selection, not really knowing what I wanted to buy. I had my eye on one particular container of strawberries however! I was planning on baking a special dessert with fresh fruit topping that night. Apparently it is not customary in Italy to pick out vegetables and fruit with your bare hands. In the Conad grocery stores for example you have to wear plastic gloves to pick your veggies out. So I pointed to the bunch of strawberries I wanted and of course they were the farthest away and nearly impossible to reach. {Those were the best of the bunch though I am telling you! ;-) } So she grabbed a container of strawberries near the ones I wanted, which happened to be much smaller and less red then the ones I had my eye on. I was told in cooking class to be direct and let them know exactly what you want, so I shook my head and pointed to the ones I wanted originally but they were just out of her reach. She mumbled something in Italian, shock her head, through her arms in the air and decided she didn’t want to sell me anything! Somewhat embarrassed about how much of a “picky American” I was being, I told her id take the ones in her hand. Something that has really been pounded into my head this semester is the fact that Americans are impatient, picky and apparently don’t understand the fact that all fruit is the same from one box to the next. It's not like in the US where you have to check your eggs before you buy them and make sure your apple isn’t bruised. So I took my less red and much smaller strawberries and kept moving. I came to the booth where I always buy potatoes. The man there is always very helpful so I bought 4-euro worth of potatoes for a thanksgiving treat.

An older, very Italian gentleman ran the last booth I stopped at last. I pointed to the green pepper I wanted and not being able to remember the word for pepper, all I got out in Italian was “Verde” (green). He laughed and put it in a bag for me. I smiled and jokingly shook my finger at him saying, “don’t make fun of my poor Italian!” Grinning from ear to ear, he pinched my cheek and handed me the bag. “Basta?” He said. “Si, basta” I replied, which pretty much means, “yes that’s enough.” Getting my money out, I spotted a nice bunch of Kiwis on the end and I asked him for a few of those also! Then I said, “Basta, Io sono finito” (Enough, I am finished) I gave the cute old man my money and walked away satisfied with my purchase. I looked down at the bag he had handed me and noticed that there was lettuce and some red root looking thing in it! I swung around and went back to his booth to tell him that he had handed me the wrong bag. He just smiled and said, “SI MANGIA, MANGIA!!” Which means YOU EAT EAT!!  
He pinched my cheek and gave me free veggies!! isn’t he sooo sweet!! I smiled, shook his hand and said Grazie mille!!

As difficult as Italians can be sometimes, most of them are such warm people and always seem to make me smile.  When I go to the San Lorenzo Fresh Market, (which by the way, is different from the outdoor market with all the leather.) I speak more Italian there than anywhere else; I meet the nicest locals and always leave with the best fresh produce!

My School Abroad- Lorenzo De Medici (LDM)

For those of you who are wondering what my "campus" looks like or what it would be like to study abroad, in this fine city, This post is for you!

This is the Odeon Theater and when there isn't an international film festival, they show movies in English with Italian subtitles! The right side of the building is where I have half my classes. LDM is on the  "3rd floor" of this building... well more like, LDM is 7 flights up... 3rd floor my butt!

This is the San Lorenzo Market - open everyday day, all day, all year around, rain or shine! I took this picture on the way to class one morning. They wheel their janky carts down the cobble stone streets every morning. The same routine everyday, setting up all their merchandise. I commend them for their consistency! Walking home from class it never fails, I hear someone say... 
"Ciao Bella, Hello, do you speak Italian? English?... JAPANESE!?" or my favorite, "free jacket for you, yeah?!" The guys in Florence are a different breed all together.  If I go a day without hearing a cat call or obnoxious comment from a local, its a rare day! They are relatively harmless though really! Just learn a few basic Italian phrases, get the "pissed off European, don't mess with me look" AND walk then you'll pretty much be left alone! On days i need a good laugh or want to snoop for good souvenirs, I walk through the middle of the market but ive learned to just avoid it and walk behind the booths to get to class!

Pictures of the more important side of campus 

"Via Faenza" coming soon!

When in Rome...

I left Florence at 5am on Saturday for Rome. It was a two day trip with LDM, jam packed with famous sights to see, "When in Rome". 

First on the itinerary at 9am was a visit to the Coliseum, Roman Forums and Arch of Constantin, ill explain what those are later. The line to get into the Coliseum was HUGE but since we were with a group we got to skip the long lines and go right in. In front of the Coliseum were a lot of cheap souvenir booths and men dressed in cheesy gladiator costumes taking pictures with paying tourists. I wouldn't expect anything less from the locals! The actually structure of the Coliseum wasn't quite how I pictured it. Very little is completely preserved, so it was challenging to picture what it could have looked like during the Gladiator games.

Next we took a walk around the Rome Forums which was essentially a huge outdoor sports complex. After that we hoped back on the bus to go to the Vatican City. The Vatican is a walled off city in Rome. Inside is the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and Raphael's Rooms. We also saw San Peter's Square and Basilica where Popes are buried. We saw a lot of famous art and beautiful architecture inside the walls of the Vatican City.  The Church of Saint Peter is the biggest of it's kind, and of course absolutely over whelming to look at. Our local tour guide told me that in 30 minuets the choir would be singing... I begged him to let us stay! He then told me that he got to sing with an American choir in the church many years ago!! I was so jealous!! Unfortunately we couldn't stay an extra 30 minuets, instead we had to go below the Basilica to look at the bones of old popes... yippy!?!

The next stop was The Sistine Chapel! It was even more beautiful then I had imagined it to be. I tried to snap a quick picture on the way out even though we weren't allowed! *see my photo bucket Michelangelo made it clear that he was a sculpture and not a painter when forced to paint the ceiling of the Sistine. His passion for sculpting was apparently by the 3D effect and life like qualities of the characters, who seemed to come right off the ceiling at you!

Day two started with a walking tour of Piazza Venezia where we saw 4 of Romes most famous fountains including the Trevi Fountain near by. The tradition is to throw a coin into the water over your shoulder with your back facing it.

Next we saw the Spanish Steps which in Italian translates to " The steps of the Spain Piazza." This is simply because the Spanish Embassy used to be the most important embassy in Rome and is located near the steps. I wasn't to impressed but, It was neat to be there non the less! After climbing up the Spanish Steps we walked to the Pantheon which was originally built with the purpose of worshiping pagan gods. The buildings unique architecture is what makes it so famous. The last stop on our walking tour was the Vittoriale a memorial built to commemorate a prominent leader in Roman history.

Next we visited one of the most important churches in the History of Christianity. The Church of Saint Paul know as the Church San Paolo Fuori le Mura to Italians. It is said to be the place were Saint Paul was martyred and buried.

After that we went for our traditional Roman lunch. First course was bruschetta and grilled vegetables. Then we got pasta with a spicy tomato sauce. The main course was a white vial with grilled potatoes and tiramisu for dessert. I was RIDICULOUSLY STUFFED! I had to help the vegetarians eat all there extra food because the waiters kept bringing them random foods from the kitchen because they didn't know what to do with them since they didn't eat meat! 

Painfully full from lunch we went on a tour of the Catacombs of St. Domitilla. 
*let the history lesson begin! don't worry i think its pretty interesting stuff and i ll keep it brief! ;-)
There are approx. 63 Catacombs under the streets of Rome that stretch for many kilometers. The soft volcanic "tufo" rock under Rome is highly suitable for digging and made it the perfect area for such elaborate tunnels to be constructed.The Catacombs of St. Domitilla, the oldest and one of the most preserved catacombs of Rome was the burial place and secret meeting spot for Christians beginning in the second century. Upwards of six million of the bodies of the early Christians were deposited in the Catacombs. Believe it or not people STILL meet done there for services! The catacombs have 4 different levels of which we explored 3 with our tour guide. Thankfully for us, there are no long any bones or body's remaining in the catacombs shallow graves dug into the walls. This is due to many years of deterioration, grave robbers and explorers. It was a slightly creepy end to the trip!  Obviously out of respect pictures and videos were not allowed. This time I strictly followed that rule!! 

In 2 days I saw pretty much every major historical sight in Rome! After a ridiculous amount of walking, I was exhausted and I am glad to be home. But now, I must go dedicate some time to my school work. Can you believe finals are just around the corner which means ill be home in less then 39 days! Wow!

FALL BREAK

Fall break video blogs and pictures coming soon! check back in a few days to hear ALL about my time in Paris, London, and Dublin!! It was GREAT FUN! Cheers!

EuroChocolate

I had been looking forward to this event ever since I signed up for it with my roommate back in September! I was on a strict no chocolate diet for two weeks leading up to Europe's BIGGEST chocolate festival ever! The Euro Chocolate festival in Perugia, Italy was epic! A huge group of us met FlorenceForFun at the trains station Saturday morning and we boarded a FULL train to Perugia at 8am. I sat with four wonderful gals Hannah, Katie, and Jackie. We got our Choco map and free Chocolate bath gel sample on the way there! When we arrived we took a bus from the train station and then took about 4 escalator to the festival from the bus stop (much more convenient then in cortona, that's for sure!) They were handing out free baby size cans of coke zero along the way which was pretty cool! When we arrived at the main festival we were overjoyed!! CHOCOLATE EVERYWHERE!!!  We weaved our way through the crowd to our first "free choc giveaway" spot and picked up a HUGE bar of free chocolate! "This is going to be a great day!" we all said to each other. Booth after booth, with mounds of tempting chocolaty goodness as far as the eye could see!! The crowds in Perugia were absolutely RIDICULOUS. There were sooooo many people there that everyone just pushed and shoved their up to the booths. We tried to follow our choco map to the next place listed on our Choco discount cards and we eventually picked up all our free goodies except two. One of which we couldn't get to because one required taking a bus out of the city to get and the other was the free hot chocolate! The minuet we got our choc discount cards and saw that we got free hot chocolate we agreed to find that booth first! For whatever reason we couldn't find the hot chocolate booth and finally our last stop before heading back to the bus was a free hot plastic cup of what i like to call liquid gelato! I was very good! I saw a ton of yummy treats I wanted to buy for myself and for people at home but I resisted the temptation and only got a few things with my choc discount card. I even got my mom some chocolate covered goodies but those didn't make it farther then the train ride home! :-/  hehe  oops I was feeling really under the weather the entire day but I still had a great time with my friends and I enjoyed the delicious chocolate! The train ride back was even more full then the ride there so my friends and I sat in between two cars on the floor and just laughed at the situation. It was a wet and cold walk back to our apartments and when i got back i went into a chocolate coma and didnt wake up till about 11:30 am this morning. Now that I have almost polished off the majority of the chocolate I bought at the festival I have to go study for finals! I really want to go back to eurochocolate and get more chocolate... :-/

Under The Tuscan Sun Life truly is Beautiful

Saturday morning at 8am we left for Arezzo again with the fabulous LUCA as our tour guide! It was just a short 45-minuet drive to the little medieval town but of course everyone was passed out before we even got to the highway. Once in Arezzo we did a short walking tour with a lovely local tour guide. She showed us several beautiful churches and talked a lot about the architecture and history of the buildings and town. I especially enjoyed two churches out of the handful we saw that day and the countless number I have seen in Italy already. One of the churches I liked the best was a very simple Gothic style church with little fresco design and very high ceilings. My second favorite was not only because of the beautiful architecture but really the beautiful music they were playing in the church! There was a wedding there that evening and the musicians were practicing!

We saw the famous café and spot where part of the movie “Life is Beautiful” was filmed and after that we had a little free time for lunch.  Hannah  (from ISU) and Beatrice (from California) and I decided to get a sandwich at the little market in the square and take our lunch to the spacious park overlooking the town below! We enjoyed each other’s company and the weird Italian sandwich we had, very much. We got some fun pictures after lunch as well! We found out that we all had a lot in common, especially Beatrice and I! We’re like kindred spirits I guess you could say. God definitely had his hand in brings us girls together!

Our next stop on the agenda was Cortona, which is where the book and movie “Under the Tuscan sun” was based. The winding, twists and turns of the drive up to Cortona were breath taking and nerve racking at the same time!  We unloaded the bus and hiked up hill to our hotel. What a work out!! We were staying in a beautiful little 4 star hotel that used to be a monastery! Hannah and Beatrice and I lucked out and were able to room together, which was wonderful sense Hannah and I didn’t know Beatrice before the trip so we were able to get to know each other better, not to mention our room was AWESOME!!   

There was a large bed when you walked in and then a staircase that took you up to a little loft with two twin beds and another closet and two skylights that opened up! Once we were settled in to the hotel, we strapped on our  “hiking boots”… (I wish) and we went on a walking tour of the village, which began, with a huge cone of gelato complete with 4 different flavors, which was apparently included in the trip cost!  Now, THAT is my kind of trip!! Luca said we would need the gelato for energy to get up the hill!?! I can’t even explain how high the evaluations of the streets were in this town! But it was a good work out, great experience and we were able to take some beautiful pictures!

After our hike, we got all dressed up for our 5-course dinner. That’s right, I said FIVE-course dinner!! We met outside on the tarsi for the Aperitif (which is a European custom sort of like appetizers before dinner that includes a drink and snack buffet). This Aperitif included a glass of sparkling white wine, mini pizzas, mozzarella cheese balls and some other little baked appetizer. It was a fabulous start to stuffing myself silly and I even put a few mini pizzas in my purse for later. (DON’T JUDGE ME!! lol) 

We made our way into the restaurant to “unthaw” (it was really chilly outside) and took a seat  for dinner.  I think the easiest and best way to tell you about my evening in Cortona is to just post pictures of every course we ate because there is really no explanation needed. I ate so much I couldn’t move and the four of us sat at the table for over an hour after everyone left and had an intellectual discussion. It was a GREAT Dinner!!



 So here it goes...

Course-one was a Zucchini Pudding.

Course # 2 (Risotto

number3 (Fresh Ravioli)

Course 4 (Florentine Steak)

Last but not least course #5!!

After dinner we wandered around the town a bit to work off some of the food and we went back to our suite room to get comfy. The next day we had a great little breakfast in the hotel and talked to a nice couple from Boston who had just bought a house in Cortona the day before. They were still a bit shell shocked I think, and rightfully so!
After breakfast we took the bus to Pienza, the city filled with cheese and then we spent the rest of the morning at the CUTEST little cheese farm! He walked us through the entire process of making Pecorino Cheese a kind of sheep milk cheese, which is produced in Pienza. After the tour of his little family owned cheese factory we got to taste the cheese and for the next hour or so we got ridiculously full on cheese, fruit and oiled bread then we all lay on the grass to soaked up the warm sun, talk and few people befriended the farmers animals! It was lovely! We didn’t ever want to leave! It was quiet, peaceful; there were good things to eat and beautiful scenery!

Reluctantly it was back on the bus for a short drive to Montepulciano where part of Twilight’s “New Moon” was filmed. We walked around the city square, I bought a few little souvenirs and then we went down to the world’s most beautiful wine cellar where they make the famous local red wine “Vino Bobile”. Lastly we had a private wine tasting of the Vino Bobile and ate more cheese and bread and many students walked away with bottles of their favorite wine mostly for gifts, then we loaded the buses early to head back to Florence.  It was a great relaxing weekend in Tuscany!

FOOTBALL!!

I went to my first Fiorentina football game this past Sunday! I wore my new purple Fiorentina shirt and a purple scarf! We asked for tickets in the "rowdy section" (what ever that means) and we took the bus a few hours before the start of the game to "tailgate".

Fiorentina Fans are CRAZY and there is not one ounce of fresh air in the whole stadium but it was neat to see practically the entire city together, wearing or waving the purple color and cheering on their team. We didn't win the game which was a bummer, but Breanne and I ended up meeting 3 really cool guys. One guy was from Scotland and the other two were from Ireland! I feel like sometimes the people I meet have more of a lasting impression on me then the place were I met them!

"The Floating City"

This weekend I went on my first real adventure, to the beautiful “floating city” of Venice. It is the city of water, masks and blown glass masterpieces. The term marionette was coined there and the city is famous for its grand Carnival! My friend Hannah has wanted to go to Venice for a while now and it seemed like the perfect weekend for me to go with her. So we walked to the train station Wednesday and tried to buy tickets from the automated ticket machine. The only tickets we could find were around 80 bucks round trip and that price was just over what we wanted to spend. We decided to wait in line to speak with a human to make sure there was no cheaper way to Venice. That was “good decision” number one of I don’t know how many over the course of the next 3 days! We ended up getting round trip tickets to Venice for 50 some Euros all together! ... What is the catch you ask? We had to take 3 different trains to get there but we didn’t mind one bit!

My class got out at 2:45 Thursday and we had a 3:08 departure from Florence SMN (Santa Maria Novella Train Station). We asked some nice Italian girl how exactly we were supposed to validate our ticket and we hoped on the train. The transfer from one train to a next was a breeze and before we knew it 3 hours had gone by and we were waiting in Bologna for our last train to Venice. We had about a 45-minuet layover in Bologna so we found the platform listed on the departure screen and waited for the “free bathroom”, aka our train to arrive. The minuets ticked by and we started to wonder were our train was. Hannah checked the screen with 2 minuets till our scheduled departure and notice that our train had moved to track number 9! We booked it down the stairs and up to the next platform just in time to jump on our train, find two seats and have the doors close behind us. We sat and looked at each other dumbfounded at what had just transpired! We had no idea that trains switched tracks once they had been listed on the departure screen and we never thought to double check. We learned a valuable lesson and luckily we learned it the easy way… Always, triple check the track number of your train.

We stepped off the train in Venice still thankful we hadn’t missed our last connection and when we came down the train station stairs to the waters edge we were overjoyed out how pretty it all was! We took a seat on the steps and called the hostel for directions. That was unsuccessful; needless to say the person who answered the phone spoke less then satisfactory English so we resorted to “Plan B”. “Plan B”, was to ask the cute guy behind the counter which way to go. ;-) This plan ended up being our best friend and most effective means of getting around that weekend! After asking a number of really nice, helpful Italians how to get to Fucina along the way we made it to our hostel. We even met the COOLEST couple on the bus rid there! Their names were Claudia and Greg and they were from Glasgow and that wasn’t the last we would see of them that weekend!

Some cute Cuban guy checked us into our camper/hostel and after an AMAZING pizza margarita and french fries with Italians version of ketchup, (which tastes more like cocktail sauce), we climbed into our slightly damp beds and went to sleep. 

Our day started with a small breakfast at the hostel and a ferry ride to the main island of Venice. The weather wasn’t ideal but we made the best of it. We walked in and out of stunning churches and visited the Piazza San Marco where we had a mini photo shoot, took some famous bird pictures and went to the top of the bell tower. We did a TON of walking and a lot of window-shopping. I tired on maybe a few hundred Venetian masks and we drooled over the beautiful glass chandlers and figurines most of the day. Our night ended with a little play about the Story of Venice, It was really neat to learn about the history a bit and the production was fantastic! I was especially nice to sit down for an hour and rest my feet. We wandered around the quiet and creepy streets of Venice, “asking” our way, back to the bus deposit where we eventually ran into our Scottish friends again! (Like i said before, simply asking how to get somewhere is SO much easier then reading a map yourself!) We figured out that we would have to wait 45 minuets for the next bus, so I grabbed some McDonalds and we chatted with our new friends while we waited! We couldn’t wait to get back to the hostel for some pizza Margarita dinner!! When we go back to Camping Fusina we found the pizzeria had close 35 minutes early!  I luckily had grabbed some food at the bus stop before that but Hannah hadn’t eaten since breakfast! There was nothing open at 10:30 and now were to go and eat! We were at a loss and really had no options until on our way to the bathroom we ran into Claudia again she was carrying a bag of left over food!! Being the wonderful gal she is she shared more then half what she got from the bar tender for free and took the rest back for her and her boy friend.

Day two in Venice was beautiful! We ate at a little restaurant along the water (well actually we sat along side a French couple, who were seated along side the river… lol) but we had scoped the place out the day before and decided it was just right for us! For desert we went to this cute little gelatoria called Mela Verde “ green apple”. I had gotten an amazing crepe nutella there the day before and so I decided to order his specialty and signature desert this time! Gelato con crepe nutella!! I had a hot crepe nutella, with chocolate gelato on top for just 5 euro! Words cannot describe how tasty it was! Since the gelato was so cheap there, I even got a little cup of strawberry to eat on the way to the train station later on! So I left Venice with a full belly, a few souvenirs and a hand painted Venetian mask! All in all it was a WONDERFUL weekend away! 

A great Saturday in Florence!

The sound of camera “beeps”, winded breathing and quite conversation filled the cool morning air. We looked out over all of Florence, the place we now call our temporary homes, and we took the fresh air into our polluted lungs. What a relief it was to be away from the noise and smell of the crowded streets below.  But this was only the first patch of flat ground on our ten-mile up hill hike through Florence and we still had 4 more hours of beautiful scenery to go. I said out loud, “I am SO glad I decided to sign up for this hiking trip. The view is just spectacular from up here!”

The excursion began with all us American college student piling on Italian bus #7, which took us up further into Florence, although I couldn’t really tell you where exactly we were… all I know is that we took bus # 7 to get there. The first stretch of road we walked after getting off the bus had a pretty steep incline and after about 5 minuets I was trying to pretend like I wasn't sore already! After a few more minutes we got to level ground and were able to look out over the city. We hiked up hill for what seemed like an hour. We walked on the pavement, we walked though grass, we walked down hill on stone, and gravel and dirt and we even went uphill through the mud! I met some awesome girls on the trip and I was baffled to find out that one of the girls from WI is living the dream, dating a nice Italian boy and is now studying here full time! I was shocked when she told me!

Saturday night I spent out on the town with a girl I had met earlier in the day hiking and two of her roommates. We stopped by the beer festival so they could try a few samples then we did a little window shopping, stopped at their apartment for bit and then headed across the river for dinner at Dantes Restaurant. I had wonderful boneless pork and potatoes main course and student’s beverages are free there so we all got a free glass of water and a can of coke!  After a full dinner they took me to their favorite gelato place and I got a MASSIVE cone of chocolate hazelnut nutella on a chocolate dipped cone covered in nuts!  Oh how painful was the walk home for me, let me tell you! I was sooo full, but It was well worth it! I had a great day and it ended with a great night!