Sorrento

Just wanted to tell you a little about one of my Amalfi Coast trip with my parents, even though it was a few weeks ago. I would have to say it is my second favorite place in line from Italy. The water is beautiful clear blue and great weather. It is a cute little town with really friendly people. We started in Sorrento and took a day trip to the Amalfi, Rafello, and Positono, which was my favorite town in the Amalfi Coast. It has millions of stairs, really old buldings, flowers everywhere, and a beautiful beach. While in Sorrento we had the best dinner at the Buffalo Inn, I had gnocchi and it was the best gnocchi I have ever had I think I will have dreams about it until I have it again! After Sorrento we took a Ferry to Capri and stayed one night there. It is a very beautiful Island, we took a boat around the entire island and of course went into the Blue Grotto. If you dont know what the Blue Grotto is it is a small cave on the island with a tiny opening you have to squeeze through on a small boat while laying down to prevent smacking your head on the rock...like my dad did! He was fine though Don't worry! Inside it is pitch black but the ocean is glowing blue...which is how it got it's name THE BLUE GROTTO! Loved this tirp, Ciao!

update!

Hi there everyone sorry I have not wrote for awhile, I have been really busy finishing up school, studying for finals, packing, and planning my travels for after the program ends...which now has! :( Anyway since I have last wrote I went to visit my relatives in Busto which is a small city outside of Milan. My parents and I went for the weekend took a train there and had planned to go to Lake Como during the day befor visting them but that dident work out because the entire Italy train system was on strike! perfect huh, so instead we hung out in the small town of Busto, walked around looked at shops and ended up on Crespi st. which is my Grandparents last name and the name of my cousins I went to visit so that was kinda cool. Crespi seemed to be a common last name there. Later that day we headed to the family's house for dinner. We were all so nervous that we were not goning to be able to communicate with them but it worked out fine, My cousin Valentina knows English very well so she was our tanslater, and I tried to help with the little Italian I learned. Oh and guess what they have a halk as a pet, never seen that before, My older cousin Roberto goes hunting with it. We had such a good time with them, we were all sad to leave but I will see them again soon, and I promised my cousin Valentina that the next time I see her I will be fluent in Italian, so I better start praticing! P.S. I will post updates very soon about my sorrento and Greece trip.

Second Night with Parents

My parents had their first full day here in Florence in the morning I sent them to the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens my favorite museum here in Florence, they loved it. It is so nice being having them here and being able to share all my favorite places with them. For dinner we went to this resturant I have been dieing to try called Monticello on Via Maffia, it very good of couse. We all had pizza, because the resturant is known for pizza. Their was also a live band during dinner and our Table was right in front so we had a perfect spot. The performers were two men one played the guitar, and the other sang beautiful Opera. Some of the songs were a little more up beat and toward the end of our meal a women, my mom's twin (she acted just like my mom) came up and pulled my Mom up to dance with her, then me it was a great night with my parents before our getaway in Sorrento.

4/5/11

My parents finally arrived today!! It was so nice to see them, dident realize how much I missed them untill I gave them a hug. I showed them around a little then we had a glass of wine outside at a resturant and chatted for awhile cathing up on things and enjoying eachother. Later I took them to my favorite resturant Osteria Del Gatto e La Volpe and we enjoyed a great dinner and wine together. I took awhile to finish my dinner because I was so busy talking to them telling them all about Florence and the adventures I have been on. After dinner they walked me home and I gave them a tour of my apartment and had them meet my room mates, then they were off to catch up on their sleep...which they really needed after their 24 hour plane/train ride getting here! poor them :( Can't wait to spend the weekend in Sorrento with them! Ciao

My Birthday!

I was soo lucky to have my birthday here this year! My roommates were so nice I woke up to our hallway all decorated with sighs and banners, and a Birthday card with a toy pony for me! haha I had school allll day so that was not very fun but to celebrate me being 21 they took me to my favorite bar to get a cider. I had my dinner with all my florence friends at Quatro Leoni, a really good resturant. We pretty much went all out lots of wine and really good food. I had the Florentine Steak, its a huge steak that florence is famous for, the waiter looked at me like I was crazy after I ordered it. Everyone had to help me eat it because it was so big. The resturant surprised me with a cheese cake and candle and everyone sang to me, it really could not have been any better!

Paris

Sorry took me awhile to post again been really busy catching up with school and enjoying my last few weeks here :( But anyway Paris was beautiful. By the time we got there though we were all so tired from the first three countries so I will have to go back again soon. We walked all over the town my favorite part of the town was Montmartre which is their old town Pairs I guess you would call it. It was just really cute town we walked around saw Van Gogh's first apartment, and it's also where the Sacre Coeur is located (big church). While I was there I tried snails, one thing I can check off the bucket list! They were not too bad, I mean what is not good when it is in pesto. On our last night we watched the Eiffel Tower light show, good idea to get some wine and cheese and watch the show reminded me of Disneyland but not as colorful. One thing you can't leave Pairs without doing is drink hot chocolate at Angelina's. Really yummy! We had to get it togo though because it was a 40 minuet wait to sit down, yup thats how good it is.

Amsterdam

Well yes Amsterdam was how I pictured it, probably any 20 year old guys fantacy if you know what I mean. The red light district is mainly what im talking about there are beautiful young prostitues lining all the windows of the streets, prostitution is completly leagal there. Amsterdam is all about bringing in money so anything that will generate money is okay. Which brings me to the part about how when someone thinks of Amsterdam they think pot, well its not actually legal, the police just pretend its not happening because it is the citys biggest source of income. All the cafes that sell pot are called "coffee shops" to disguise them from the police. The town itself is very cute, it has canals going all thoughout very similar to Venice. Something funny about the city is all the buildings are tilted forward, or crooked becasue they were built on mud and the city does not want to spend the money to fix it so they leave it. Just like any small european city bikes are the main form of transportation it is very easy to get hit my them because they drive fast and expect you to move out of their way. I dident get hit by one but a few people I know did! While there I visited the Ann Frank House, very sad it gave me the chills especially when I was in the part where Ann's family would hide out. I'm really glad I saw it, this along with everything I saw in the other citys about the Holocaust really makes me appreciate EVERYTHING about my life.

Berlin, Germany

I loved Berlin. Once again not what I expected but much more. Berlin is one of my favorite cities I have visited so far on my travels. I love everything about it, the crappy part is that I was in this city for the shortest amout of time. The city is very uniquie, it has a "punk rock" stye, something intersting I learned is that some night clubs or bars will not let you in if you dress too nice/facny!! I never heard such a thing. The funny part of this I learned while I was wearing a dress and heels sitting at a bar wondering why everyone looked so causual. Some places I visited were the Berlin Wall of course, and also another part of the Berlin wall called the east side gallery, which is the longest piece of the wall that is still standing. On it are many murals, a memorial of freedom. I also visited an art gallery called Tacheles which is not your tipical museum, it has alot of "street art" on the walls, and alot of unique paintings and statues. Worth seeing for the younger generation or if you would just like to see something different than your traditional art gallery. Cant leave this post without something about food right...Bratwursts are the best!!

Prague, Czech Republic

The first stop of my spring break was Prague. Befor going to Prague I knew nothing about it and had no idea what it was like. I will just tell the highlights of each of the countries I visited. During our tour I learned a lot about the city, but what really cought my attention was the Holocaust, and my appriciation for it grew in each of the cities. In Prague I visited the Jewish muesuem which displayed drawings done by Jewish children while they were at the concentration camps. Also at the muesuem is a memorial and you can see where the Jewish people were burried, they are burried in rows with 16 people stacked on top of each other and the ground it littered with tomb stones it was all heart breaking but really moving. It really makes me thankful for the life I have. On a happier note we had a traditional czech meal which was very different, not like anything I have had befor. The meal started off with a dark heavy beer and a hardy soup, next we had beef ( I think it was corn beef) it was in this orange flavored gravy and was served with an interesting bread, toped with an orange with whip cream...great for my figure I know! haha. For dessernt I had apple cobbler Yum. When I was not eating interesting food, or looking at the Jewish museum I just explored the city and went site seeing. Oh yes I also visited the John Lennon wall and sighned it. The wall was created during the communist rule, people would thoght of Lennon as their hero and would write his liyrics on the wall to express lack of freedom.... OFF TO BERLIN, CIAO

When in Rome

Updating you about Rome a little late, but a little late is better than never right? Rome was a busy quick trip. Much bigger city than Florence, its more city like but still has some cobble stone steets. We saw all the main attrictions; the Spanish Steps, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Vatican City, and the Colosseum. We had a tour of Vatican City which went by really fast considering it took a little over 3 hours to get through the entiere city. It is such an amazing beyond words on how beautiful it is and the talent that went into all the artwork. It was just as a I remembered and better. This time the colosseum was open so we were able to go inside and see what it looked like. Our last night we ate dinner like at this really good resturant called Le Lanterne I highly reccomend it if you ever go to Rome. We searched for nearly a 45 mins trying to find a place to eat that looked authentic and was not bothering us to come in. I had the gnocchi, and others had ravioli, and carbanara everything was made perfect! We each had dessert I had an apple crisp type thing served with gelato sooo good, and the other girls all had delicious desserts as well. To top it off after we were done the waiter brough us each a free glass of wine. We ended up staying for over 2 hours just relaxing and loving Italy. Best way to end our stay in Rome. (address to resturant via della pilotta, 21a 00187 Roma, phone number 0669924458)

Just another day in Italy

Today is only one of the best days of the year....WOMENS DAY! Yes can you believe it they actually have a day dedicated to women! So at many of the resturants they give the women flowers and discounts on their meals and whatever else they feel like doing. America should really get with it! Today was also the last day of Carnivale (its like pretty much the italian version of halloween except it lasts an entire month and they have carnivales in each city with huge floats and lots of convetti) I went to the one in Viareggio it was pretty cool, the floats were surprisingly really political they even had one making fun of the U.S. So anyway there were alot of people out today dressed up so it was a fun day. I dident dress up though...woops. I did have wine tasting/class tonight on chianti. Tasted a few wines and actually learned some new things about wine flavors that I dident know before. The tasting was undergound in this resturant pretty cool! I'm excited to do more, like in two weeks for my 21st birthday!! Okay well I really got to get back to studying I have two mid terms this week then I am off to Prauge, Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin. P.S. I will post my Rome trip up soon. Ciao

Siena and San Gimingano

Siena and San Gimingano are two beautiful citys just about 2 hours outside of Florence. The tiny little towns that over look Italys countryside. It was nice because it also reminded me a little bit of home like I was back in sonoma county for a second...just in case I was feeling a little home sick that cured it! Siena a little bit bigger than San Gimingano but still very small was kinda funny, they have a lot of pride in their town and make it very clear that they do not like Florence! The town is divided up into little areas called contradas and the people of their contrada are very loyal to it. The contradas are named after animals and bugs for example elephant or caterpiller. The people of Siena are not supposed to Marry outside of their contrada either however it does happen, also when the women have babys they normaly have them at their house to be sure that their baby is blessed into their contrada....I thought this was interesting and kinda funny because when your there you will be walking about 20 steps and all the sudden be in a differnt contrada and see their contrada flag and sign everywhere. San Gimingano is so small probably about a mile big I'd have to say, also a very quiet pieceful town not to many people there at all, but I really enjoyed the little town. We just got some gelato (sooo good) there are two places in the main square the #1 place was closed so we had to go to the second best but it was still amazing! then we just walked around town and relaxed in the sun and enjoyed the view. If you ever vist these places do them both in the same day because you do not need much time there, but way worth the visit! Ciao

Switzerland

So I did my first travel outside of Italy to Interlaken Switzerland. It was really hard and felt strange packing for a vacation while you are technically already on a vacation. I went with some friends through this company called EuroAdventures, there are a few different companys that do college trips to different places throughout Europe. The first day I was there I went paragliding! At first I was not going to do it and just the other girls were but then after they did it they convinced me and it was soooo much fun! We drove up the mountain then had to hike the rest of the way up and run off a cliff/hill, it's probably pretty close to one of the crazist funnest things I've done. But don't worry I was not by my self flying, I was with a pilot who knew what he was doing.The next day we went to this cute little town called Murren its way up in the Alps, it has amazing views, so we just walked around and just enjoyed the snow/mountains, ate lunch, and relaxed. The weekend reminded me of being in Tahoe (an extra cold Tahoe) which was kinda a nice at home feeling except for it being so darn expensive! We thought it would be cheaper than Italy because our dollar is the same as a Frank...that was not the case. They charge about 18 franks for a cheeseburger so you can only imagine. I met a local and was talking to him, and asked what the deal was with the high prices of everything. Apparently minimum wage is about 23 franks an hour...and people get paid salary of 3100 a month at the very least! Thought that was interesting! We all really liked Switzerland and everyone was soo nice. Ciao!

add on of group meal

I forgot to mention that at the end we had so much leftover meat and we all felt really bad throwing it away. We had one guy sitting at our table who wanted to take it home but no one wanted to ask for a to go box so I did and the waiter looked at me like I was crazy because in Italy you do not take things home you eat everything!! so that was pretty embarrassing haha, anyway he came back with a plastic bag for us to put the meat in!! Then other tables saw us doing it and they did it too! The restaurant must have hated us, o well It was pretty funny, anyway do not ask for food to go in Italy

8 course meal

Last week we had our group meal at this restaurant called Il Latini it was sooo good. We started off with our own plate of prosciutto, then came a caprese salad and crostini with patate (course 1) Next came our pastas; pene bolonese seriously looked just like the one my grandma makes except with meat in it, ravioli, bibollita (italian bread soup sooo good), and a bean soup. (course 2), still not even close to done! Next came potatoes and beans (course 3) now finally for the main course we had a huge platter of meat with veal, prime rib, chicken and pork. (course 5) All the girls I was sitting with didnt know it was veal and they ate it and were saying how good it was....and I said something about veal and they all said "ehh no I dont eat veal" then I asked the waiter and he told us it was veal. hahaha I thought it was pretty funny. Anyway now for the dessert they first brought us an assortment of 5 different treats including tortas cream puffs, cake.(course 6) Next we had biscotti served with sweet liqueur that you dip the biscotti in, can't remember the name of it though. (course 7) Lastly they brought a sweet dessert white wine kinda like port but it was white wine(course 8) by far the most food I have ever eaten in one sitting!! Best meal in Italy so far and most people say it will be the best meal I will have in Italy. Here are some photos I took...kinda forgot in the beginning sorry! Hope you like!

Bologna

Hello Hello... Saturday I went to Bologna with a few girls we took the train there it took about an hour, we left around 8am we planned on staying till 8pm but ended up leaving at around six because we were tired and the other girls feet hurt, I'm tankful I wore my really comfortble boots unlike them. Anyway while we were there we did a lot of eating shopping and site seeing. Shopping there was much cheaper than in Florence and its the perfect time to shop everywehre because they are clearing out their new collections. Its also hard in Florence when I walk to or from school to not stop and buy everything! The town kinda reminded me on San Francisco they have alot of busses everywhere much more cars around then Florence and its also alot more spread out. When we got to Bologna we searched for this coffee shop our teacher told us about that was supposed to be amazing for a half hour then gave up and went to another one and got pizza and cappuccinos. We went to a few museums they are all huge here! Later me and Courtney climbed the Torre Asinelli (famous tower) there are two towers one is actually leaning like the tower in pisa. We climbed 400 steps to get to the top is was a little scary at some points because the tower is so old and the steps are very tiny. The view was amazing when we got to top, that was my favorite excusion we have done so far. Just a little survival tip for when you come to Italy...ONLY USE ATM MACHINES TO GET YOUR MONEY OUT. they money exchange store (they are everywhere around the toristy spots) charged me 100eruo service charge to get money out. wooops!

2/10

Ciao! Just finished dinner with my room mates well we called it dinner we just had Focaccia, cheeses, salad and canolli's from the chocolate festival yumm! By the way we are having this chocolate festival at the Santa Croce and it is the best chocolate I have ever had my favorite is fresh strawberry and banana Kabob diped in milk chocolate gotten it twice so far! School has started and its not what I thought, they are not giving us a break because we are in Florence. Its not the easiest place to be motivated to stay inside and do homework but I'll figure something out :) Last night I took a cooking class on how to make gnocchi they were not that hard at all but we will see how hard it really is when I try making them at home. It was fun there was a group of 16 of us and we were split into small groups and each of us had an instructer (mine was really good looking and around my age which made it a little more exciting) The sauce we made to go along with it was not best so I would make a different sauce. To go along with it we had caprase and chocolate salami. My next class is on how to make Ravaioli. This weekend on Saturday I am going to Bologna and Sunday climbing to the top of the Duomo. Ciao xoxo

2/6

Hi everyone glad your enjoying the blog! Yesterday we went to Pisa and Lucca. Lets just say Lucca really is the city of walls we got lost about 4 times there. It is a really nice place very pretty and much much clamer than Florence. When we got there it was freezing and me and my roommate were only wearing sweaters so we had to buy a jacket...lesson learned to bad its probably not going to be the only jacket I buy here, the shopping is crazy and its hard not to buy everything I see. Especially since now that im here I really dont like much of what I packed because the Florentine women always look so good! Anyway in Lucca we walked along the wall (the town is surrounded by a very tall wall) That was nice then we got off the wall and ended up getting stuck in the farmers market...there was seriously no way out we had to walk through the entire thing! oops! We managed to find one Church it was beautiful! I forgot the name sorry... A few hours after being lost in Lucca we made it to the Bus and went to Pisa. I'v already been but it was nice to refresh my memory and learn a little more about the town. Walking into Pisa and first seeing the tower it looks fake its so cool. The tower today leans 13 feet, it used to lean 27 feet but they had to fix it because it was gonig to fall over. Later that night me and my roommates all made dinner then went out to a lounge and the Red Garder which apprently has been there for years. Today I woke up and went for a run along the Arno River and on the way home walked along pontevecchio and looked at all the jewls. It felt so great and I finally got the feeling that yup I am living in Florence. We just got home from shopping..well we dident find anything just browsing to see what they have and we will go back again on our own a man told me I was beautiful and had beautiful friends..and it was his birthday so I would get a great deal on a leather jacket which it was but I dont want one. Anyway I feel like I keep blabbing Ill update soon. Im watching the Superbowl tonight at midnight! should be interesting.

So its 4am here and I am wide wake great huh?...the past few days it has been 5am then falling asleep at 7 and having to wake up at 8am, so so far the sleeping thing is not working out too well. But its not just me I will look over and my room made will be there wide awake as well so we have our daily early morning chat. Anyway yesterday which was Tuesday I went to the farmers market it was so cool they have tons of fresh fruit which I stocked up on for our apartment. All the old Italian men were laughing at us and elling jokes because they knew we had no idea what we were doing haha. My favorite part was the prosciutto part, too bad the man was not Italian but owell. The man gave me samples of different prosciuttos, they were really good so of course I bought some and on the way home stoped at a bakery and go some focaccia for later and a slice of pizza focaccia for then which was AMAZING. Here are some pictures from the market the ones where the meat is hanging is the inside part of the market I'm sure I'll be coming here often. It was really cool I think we were the only Americans in there and no one spoke english it was awesome.

I'm here!

Hey everyone! So I made it the flight was not that bad at all I watched 3 movies then fell asleep so it went by pretty quick. We landed in switserland and me and a few friends decided to get a drink at the bar..might make for a better flight to florence haha. so we went up to the bar they tell me to go first of course I have no idea what im doing so i asked the lady for a glass of red of course she looks at me like im crazy and says um sit down...then we sit down and realize shes not going to come to our table so we move on to the next bar...much better experience we order swiss beer which was good then we asked these swiss police officers to take our picture and they look at us and say no. so our swiss experience was interesting! Anwyway a few ours later we finally arive at our hotel get to our room and go to dinner. I went with my room mates which are all nice we went out to a tattoria and everyone was nice to us but did not speak english. I had "country soup" it was soup with garlic bread inside it and baked interesting but really yummy! Walking back to the hotel took about an hour instead of 20 mins because we of course got lost which im sure is going to happen alot because every street looks exactly the same. Today we got to our apartments I will post pics later, it is an old building there are 6 girls 3 different apartments but we share a main entrance so really I just have one room mate..if that makes any sense? So far I have met tons of people and everyone is super friendly so im really happy with everything and can't wait for this to feel like home. We just not got home from dinnner it was a long day of meetings orentations and getting settled in and on top of it all I am soooo tired. Hope I get a good sleep tonight!
Ciao

4 DAYS TILL DEPARTURE

Hi there! ahhh I'm so nervous but so excited, I'm like a little kid going to Disneyland haha. At night it takes a long time to fall asleep because I just lay there and can't stop thinking about the trip. Got a few last min things to do and try to fit all my clothes into two suit cases then I'm off! I leave Saturday night at 7:30 and do not arrive in Florence till 7pm on Sunday night! Wish me Luck!