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!

Where has the day gone?

Having the apartment to myself this weekend makes me realize just how fast this entire experience is going. While at first it felt like I had been here months already its just now the end of week four. Lately, I wake up and wonder where the previous day has gone.  My life here in Florence has started to fall into a sort of routine. Days I don’t have class, which is the majority of my week… I sleep in (blaming culture shock), make breakfast, sit at computer, get dressed, eat a snack, maybe take a walk around to city, eat gelato, people watch till dusk then its back to make dinner, more computer and skype and by this time its already 10pm! Like I said… Where did the day go!?!  Im happy to say that each week I look forward to Tuesday nights now because I have found a place to go and worship in English! I stumbled upon this little Methodist church one night and noticed they did a service in English on Tuesdays and ive only gone twice but I love it already. It is just a small group of 4-6 each week and this past week after worship Mark Shultz and his wife walked in the front door looking for a place to worship during their stay in Florence. Silly me I didn’t even recognize him when I introduced myself but when I got back that night I realized that I have like 5-6 of his songs in my “favorites” playlist on iTunes! This Sunday he is going to sing a few songs with another girl from Nashville so I plan to attend the service despite the fact the message will be in Italian I am going to bet at least a few songs will be in English! When I met him he mentioned that he was a Christian Music Artist from Nashville and after I rambled on about my claims to fame I said, “ Oh that’s wonderful, you should definitely join us for a jam session sometime! “. I am pretty sure he was ok with that idea if I remember correctly! Little did I know what that would really mean!! Aahh

So today I am spending some time inside to catch up on writing blogs but I plan to sit by the Duomo this evening and people watch while I attempt to do a little homework. Tomorrow is going to be exciting! I signed up to go hike through the Florentine hills with my school! It’s free, its exercise, its new and exciting and I will be sure to bring my camera! ;-) That’s all for now!

Ciao!

Pasta, Pasta, Bread and more Pasta!

Angel Hair Pasta

One bag of this stuff lasted me a week!

My diet the past few weeks has consisted of il pane (bread), buttered pasta and parmesan, popcorn, bananas, an orange here and there, American cereal, Pringles, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate covered bread, chocolate muffins and anything else I see that slightly resembles chocolate. Along with the usually stuff, I have been eating a ton of peanut butter toast, peanut butter and Ritz, peanut butter on celery and so on and so forth. I think you get the point, I eat a lot of peanut butter and chocolate, but I have recently expanded my palate to include Nutella! My new favorite snack is Nutella spread on banana slices! IT’S DELICIOSO!

NUTELLA

Tonight I made myself a baked potato in the tabletop oven contraption!  I followed the cooking instructions on line and even cooked it an extra 15 minuets on each side and it still came out uncooked through the center, but in the potatoes defense it was quite large! It was a good change from pasta even though it wasn’t completely cooked. I mixed in a little fresh cheddar cheese and butter with the potato and for desert I had a few slices of this chocolate bread roll that I got at the Conrad’s grocery. Eating out in Italy, just as in the US, is not budget friendly so I try to eat in as much as possible! but when I do eat out I spend anywhere from 5-12 euro. This could be just for spaghetti or it could include the bread and water and the cover charge. Eating out is about the price of a grocery bill that could lasts 2-3 days! Really if you think about, it its not much different from at home in the US. I just never noticed it as much at home between my meal plan and having food at home. Food here is exactly what I like to eat at home minus the fattening fried foods but I can do without all that no problem! I cannot wait for cooking class Wednesday! Last week we made FRESH homemade pasta with a walnut paste, and crepe suzette! I'm so excited to make and EAT something fresh and different!

CREPES SUZETTE

The Auto"hell"

I walked through the revolving gate and stopped a good 20 feet from the food counter behind the mob of people waiting in "line". Unlike fast food at rest stops in the US, the food here is "more fresh" rather then frozen, deep-fried, prepackaged or nuked. You have ultimately three choices when you enter the rest area. There is a counter where you can order premade sandwiches (which by the way, are EVERYWHERE in Italy at every restaurant, grocery, café or bar) they also have baked goods like muffins and pizza type stuff. But, if you don't feel like spending an arm and a leg on hot food you have the option to spend both your arms and a leg on packaged foods like M&Ms, crackers, cheese, ect. The first rest stop we went to even had a full assortment of cold cut meats, cheese, wine and pretty much anything else you'd see in a regular supermarket. Oh and I can’t forget about the cappuccino bar where you can get your piping hot cup of cappuccino! Deciding which counter to approach is the least of your worries at a rest stop however. Here is a little word of advice for anyone interested in driving through Italy anytime soon. DON'T STOP AT AN AUTOGRILL! Or do so only if you’re willing to push shove and bump your way to the front of the line to get food, pay your bill or even use the bathroom! But I will say one good thing about the AutoGrill is that it is FREE to use the toilet! Most public places in Europe make you pay to use the bathroom. That is just something you get used to while live here I guess?  
Italian’s, women especially, are very pushy when it comes to waiting in lines, they just apparently don’t understand the concept! All us Americans where hysterical laughing by the end of the trip at how impatient the Italians were! First of all they tend to cut you in line if they don’t feel like waiting and if they don’t resort to cutting, they just get as close to you in line as possible because apparently it makes the line move faster? One lady behind me literally had her entire body up against mine in line, bumping into me like I could have moved somewhere!? It was quite comical and it’s probably a good thing we did speak the same language, if you know what I mean!  

Field Trip to Pompeii

Sorry for the length of this blog entry but trust me its worth the time and patients to read!;-)

 Last weekend I visited Pompeii, Sorrento and the Island of Capri with LDM (Lorenzo de Medici) We loaded the bus bright and early at 5:30am on Saturday and took off for Pompeii closer to 5:45am. Cruising along the highway we passed a few gas stations, which I hadn't even notice existed before then. Once we were out of the city, the first few minutes of the drive sort of made me feel like I was back in the states, but then we'd pass a goofy looking semi truck and id remember where I was.

After an uncomfortable few hours of sleeping upright on the bus, we stopped at our first rest stop. Rest stops in Italy are called AutoGrills and take my word for it, THEY ARE A NIGHTMARE! I'll explain more about Italian rest stops in another Blog entitled Auto"hell". If your interested in the full story just read that, it's a good story especially if you ever plan to travel around Europe in your life time!
So aside from the ridiculous rest stops the field trip was great!

Saturday we visited the ancient city of Pompeii. It was a surreal and fascinating experience to see the devastation Vesuvius caused so many years ago.

That afternoon we drove to our little hotel in Sorrento called Hotel Michelangelo and the evening consisted of complementary dinner, cheap table wine, tasting the famous Lemonchello (lemon liquor, NASTY stuff!!) and watching fireworks by the shore with a small group of girls. 

 Sunday morning we loaded the ferry for Capri Island (case number two, feeling like herded cattle!). Looking back at Sorrento from the boat was cool to see, but hard to capture in a picture.

We arrived at the blue cave expecting to wait just a few minuets in line. We waited over an hour for our turn and honestly, I didn’t mind it one bit! I was relaxing on a boat, in the beautiful blue waters of the Mediterranean, soaking up the warm sun, while most everyone else one the boat was either; impatient, seasick or hungover from the night before! The main reason we had to wait so long for our turn was again some impatient Italian who cut us in line. We couldn’t understand what he was yelling but we were certain that he was extremely, impatient and rude. Lol Our boat captain blared a siren over the loud speaker impatiently to get someone’s attention and the first rowboat finally pulled up alongside our boat. In groups of three we disappeared into the Grotta Azzurra (Blue Cave) only after coughing up another 11.50 euro for the entrance fee that is. 

To get in to the 60meter-long, 25 meter-wide cavity, you had to be taken in one of the small rowboats by an experienced rower. The opening is so narrow, that you have to lie on the bottom of the boat when you enter and if the waters are to ruff they will close down the entrance of the cave all together. We got lucky and were the last group aloud inside that morning. Jumping out of the little rowboat to swim inside the cave was an extra tip of 5 euro or so depending on how much you had in your wallet. After hearing about the jellyfish my friends swam with earlier I kept my 5 Euros and decided not to risk it! 

The cliffs of Capri towering into the sky were breathtaking and I didn’t think water could get any clearer or more blue then in Hawaii, but I was wrong! I was fascinated by the house on the highest and farthest peak of the cliff that has to be one of the most valuable properties in the world.

 look closely at the picture, above the sea cave entrance you'll see a house!

We passed under the arch of love to hug or kiss our friends + loved ones as tradition calls

Capri was a beautiful little town but a very expensive one!

I rod the cable car to Ana Capri and paid way too much for some ravioli and bread at a fancy pansy restaurant. Then I found the famous geltaoria Lucca recommended and treated myself to some chocolate gelato on a cone. Mmm that stuff NEVER gets old! After dessert we stopped in the little shoemaker store and a few people bought custom hand made sandals! I took a little nap on the stone beach before meeting Lucca at the boat to leave, and then it was back on the ferry to meet the bus in Sorrento.

All in all it was a great weekend and I am glad I got to experience Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri. Who knows were will my next adventure take me!

Festa della Rificolona

Jess and I have been struggling the past few days to focus with all the noise from the street below our apartment so We closed the windows early tonight and scarified a cooler apartment for a "slightly quieter" one. Not long after we locked the windows we could here extremely loud music coming from outside and it sounded like drums. When we opened up the windows this is what we saw!

We called over our neighbors from ISU and we all decided to get a closer look! We walked out dressed in workout clothes/normal U.S. loungewear, apparently not normal Italian “paper lantern festival style”! We asked one guy what was happening and he asked us if we just came from soccer practice?! We headed over to the piazza looking American, with cameras in hand and we didn’t care! We joined the rest of the crowd in the Piazza Santissima Annunziata still trying to figure out why the heck all these people were here with paper lanterns on a Tuesday night! We were busy gauche over all the people, music, and children’s lanterns when all of the sudden! Brittany was hit with a spit wad! Well, we thought it was a spit wad at least! We looked around and notice ALL of the children had long black spit wad tubes and they weren't aiming at us but actually at the lanterns! Well at least they were supposed to aim at the lanterns!

 

The Festa della Rificolona means Festival of the Paper Lanterns. I wont give you a history lesson right now, although I think it is quite interesting, ill just sum up the modern day version of the festival for you. Florentine children make their own, beautiful lanterns in colored tissue paper and carry them on a tall pole while others target the paper lantern with spit wads made of clay in an attempt to furtively hit them. The objective is to make the candles fall over and set the lantern on fire. It is very common for most lanterns to be burned by the end of the night. 

 

We stood and people watched for a few minuets and decided to go grab some money so we could get the FULL experience. THERE WAS CANDY!!! I believe I said at one point, “I feel like im in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory!!” I spent 4euro on a handful of gummy worms and a small bag of roasted peanuts and they were DELICIOSO! What a seriously random and adventurous Tuesday night in Florence!